Electrical and electronic equipment
As a country, we discard an estimated 60,000 tonnes of e-waste annually. This is equivalent to each person throwing away 11kg of e-waste, or the weight of 73 mobile phones.
With new mobile phone and laptop models launched every few months, and smart televisions and other tech gadgets becoming more common, the amount of e-waste generated will only increase.
E-waste is EEE that has been thrown away. EEE refers to anything powered by an electrical source, including laptops, mobile phones, televisions, refrigerators, as well as batteries and electric mobility devices. It makes up less than 1% of total waste generated in Singapore, but contains small amounts of hazardous substances such as mercury and cadmium and may be potentially harmful to human health and the environment if improperly disposed of.
However, e-waste also offers great potential for the circular economy approach. EEE contains valuable resources such as precious metals and working components. If we are able to extract these resources or reuse them, we can reduce the need to mine virgin raw materials.
RESTRICTIONS ON HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCES IN EEE
Since June 2017, Singapore has restricted six hazardous substances found in common types of EEE to reduce the chances of these substances entering our environment due to improper disposal methods.
Singapore also ratified the Minamata Convention on Mercury. Since 31 March 2018, Singapore has phased out all batteries (including button cell batteries) containing more than 5 ppm by weight of mercury. The manufacture, import and export of certain mercury-added products such as fluorescent lamps (exceeding specified mercury limits) and non-electronic measuring devices will be phased out by 1 January 2020.
But many more forms of EEE still enter our shores. To promote proper recycling and treatment of discarded EEE, the NEA formed a national voluntary partnership for e-waste recycling in 2015. Members work together to spearhead recycling programmes for such wastes.
RECYCLING NATION’S ELECTRONIC WASTE (RENEW) PROGRAMME
The RENEW programme was launched in 2012 to encourage the public to dispose of their electrical and electronic devices in a responsible manner. The programme, a collaboration between StarHub, DHL, and TES, and supported by the NEA, aims to make e-waste recycling more convenient and accessible by placing collection bins all around the island.
Since its launch, more than 450 RENEW bins have been placed at over 400 locations (as of March 2019), including Government buildings, community clubs, schools, condominiums, shopping malls and major electronics retail stores.
They each come with a deposit slot, which is large enough to fit items such as cables, mobile phones, tablets, laptops, DVD players, car stereos, telephones and answering machines.
The programme has collected more than 320 tonnes of e-waste since 2012, with the e-waste collection rate growing exponentially over the years – over 126 tonnes was collected in 2018, up from 2 tonnes in 2012.
THE E-WASTE MANAGEMENT ROADMAP
To ensure the proper treatment of EEE at their end-of-life and prevent the valuable resources they contain from going to waste, Singapore is implementing the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) approach to manage e-waste. The legislative framework will be provided under the Resource Sustainability Act.
EPR is an environmental policy tool that has been used effectively to promote e-waste recycling in other countries, including South Korea and Sweden. While producers are conventionally only responsible for the manufacture and sales of their products, EPR extends their responsibility to the proper end-of- life management of their products.
Come 2021, producers of EEE – including manufacturers and importers – will be physically and/or financially responsible for the end-of-life treatment of their products. This means they will need to collect and ensure that the products are recycled by licensed companies.
Producers of covered consumer EEE, which are products that are commonly used by the general public such as laptops, mobile phones, and household appliances, are required to join a Producer Responsibility Scheme (PRS).
The operator of the PRS will be appointed by the NEA, and take on the producers’ responsibilities to develop and implement a collection and recycling system specifically for consumer EEE. This will include scheduling collection drives, providing e-waste bins, transporting the e-waste to licensed recyclers, and reporting the tonnage of e-waste collected and recycled to the NEA.
The PRS will also need to conduct public education programmes to encourage e-waste recycling and meet e-waste collection targets.
As important touchpoints for consumers, retailers will be required to provide free onefor- one take-back services upon the delivery of new products.
For large EEE retailers with a floor area above 300 m2, provision of in-store e-waste collection points for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) equipment, lamps and/or batteries will be made mandatory.
As for non-consumer EEE, which includes solar photovoltaic (PV) panels and servers, their producers will be required to provide free take-back services for all of their end-of-life equipment from their clients upon request.
Having an e-waste management system will reduce the risk of improper handling of e-waste, and through it, support a circular economy approach by harvesting the precious metals in e-waste, turning trash into treasure.
