The Basel Convention Regional Centre for Training and Technology Transfer for the Caribbean (BCRC-Caribbean) is one of 14 global regional and coordinating centres established under the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal.
Currently serving 15 Caribbean member states, the centre aims to protect human health and the environment against the adverse effects of hazardous wastes.
To achieve this, the centre assists these countries in meeting their obligations under chemicals and waste multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) like the Basel, Rotterdam, Stockholm (BRS), and Minamata Conventions.
Since its creation, the centre has utilised capacity-building sessions with regional stakeholders to create comprehensive strategies and sustainable activities to meet the targets under these conventions.
BCRC-Caribbean’s e-waste project in Trinidad and Tobago
Did you know that approximately 53.6 million metric tonnes of electronic waste (e-waste) are generated globally on an annual basis?
E-waste consists of discarded components, assemblies and consumable items that depend on an electrical current to function.
These can be found in information and communications technology (ICT) equipment, household appliances and even your mobile phones.
E-waste contains over 1,000 different chemical substances, many of which are considered hazardous under the Basel, Minamata and Stockholm Conventions.
In Trinidad and Tobago, in 2020, there were 1.9 million active mobile phone subscriptions, greatly outnumbering the population at the time.
Recognising the limited mechanisms for the environmentally sound management (ESM) of e-waste in the Caribbean, the BCRC-Caribbean team launched a project titled “Demonstration of the Environmentally Sound Management of Used and End-of-Life Mobile Phones in Trinidad and Tobago”, in February 2022.
The project’s goal included:
- Increasing public awareness on the ESM of used and end-of-life (EOL) mobile phones
- Diverting this waste stream from Trinidad and Tobago’s landfills
- Creating opportunities for the refurbishment and recycling of these mobile phones weather possible.
Partners on the project included:
- Trinidad and Tobago’s Ministry of Planning and Development
- Environmental Management Authority (EMA)
- The Trinidad and Tobago Solid Waste Management Company Limited
- Digicel Trinidad
- The Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT)
- Piranha International Limited
As part of the activities under this project, 14 collection receptacles were installed at various locations across Trinidad and Tobago to facilitate the collection of used mobile phones.
This collection drive ran until the end of June 2023.
Fun Fact: If you are in Trinidad and Tobago, you can reach out to BCRC-Caribbean on social media, or give them a call at 628-8369, to find out how you can still recycle your used mobile phone at no cost.
Helping Electronics Live Longer Campaign
The HELLO – Helping Electronics Live Longer – public awareness campaign is being executed in tandem with this collection drive, with the aim of raising awareness regarding the ESM of this waste stream.
Cellma and Cellwyn (pictured within the campaign logo) were developed as the faces for the HELLO campaign, to communicate key messaging in an easily digestible manner.
What happens when you decide to recycle your mobile phone?
So you took BCRC’s advice and decided to recycle your mobile phone. What happens next?
Certified Trinidad-based e-waste recycling company, Piranha International Ltd., will collect the phone and take it to their facility.
There, the collected phone will be classed as either waste or non-waste and undergo a secure data erasure process.
The non-waste mobile phone will be set aside for refurbishment while the phones classed as waste will be dismantled in a safe manner.
These components will then be shipped abroad for metal recovery and environmentally sound treatment.
To learn more about the BCRC-Caribbean’s fight against e-waste and the work done by the Centre regionally, visit www.bcrc-caribbean.org.
