Safer Lagos looming as Hinckley Group begins recycling of e-waste

The true safety of Lagos environment in terms of electronic waste (e-Waste) is underway as new group; Hinckley Recycling has commenced recycling of all collected electronic waste streams.

The company facility in Ojota is the first government approved e-waste recycling facility in Lagos.

In an interview with the company’s Business Development Manager, Belinda Osayamwen, observed that whereas they follow global best practices, “Hinckley Recycling is committed to engender a standard of excellence by providing high quality service for the disposal of electronic waste and ensuring that this service is always conducted in an environmentally friendly manner and that the processes involved during the disposal would at all times conform to and comply with all relevant legislation as enforced by the recognised authorities – local and international”.

Already, all relevant government agencies including the Ministry of Environment, NESREA and the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency have given the company all needed approvals including a certificate of destruction to carry out recycling of such class of wastes.

In her views, “Over the past two decades, the global market for electrical and electronic equipment had continued to grow exponentially and expected to produce over 50 million tonnes of waste globally in 2018”.

“The disposal of these equipment at end-of-life posed a challenge to the environment and the country at large, hence, the proper and responsible recycling of the e-waste should be receiving a considerable amount of attention by environmental agencies.

Continuing, Osayamwen noted that “The informal sector consists of scavengers and scrap dealers buying electronic waste from households and companies’ premises. They recover value from the e-waste using crude methods, which result in harm to themselves and the environment.

“Hazardous fractions common in e-waste include mercury, lead and cadmium all of which can be fatal to human health. These hazardous fractions need to be extracted and related responsibly by a formal recycler such as Hinckley Recycling. Such hazardous waste can be found spread across Nigeria in back gardens, dumpsites, markets and companies’ premises.”

She revealed further that several Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) such as HP, Dell and Philips have worked extensively with the Federal Government environmental bodies such as the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency to develop standards and for best practices of collection and recycling of e-waste, which include developing the framework for Extended Producer Responsibility for Nigeria.