On average, each person in Singapore generated 19.5kg of e-waste in 2014, second only to Hong Kongers in Asia. By this year (2018), the figure will have grown to 21kg as estimated by the Global E-Waste Monitor 2017. Of this amount, just 6% is known to be recycled, with the remaining 94% untracked.
Singapore’s National Environment Agency (NEA) recently announced that it would be enforcing Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) legislation in Singapore by 2021. The EPR ensures producers of electronics are responsible for the disposal of their post-consumer waste.
EPR legislation has raised e-waste recycling rates in countries in the European Union. Sweden for one has a mature recycling system with one of the highest e-waste recycling rates at 51.6%.
What has made the Swedish e-waste system successful and what lessons can Singapore take from it? Below are four key success factors of the Swedish system:
- Clearly defined stakeholder roles and responsibilities
The Swedish e-waste EPR legislation clearly describes the roles and responsibilities of each stakeholder. This, coupled with the close collaboration between stakeholders, has been the key to the success of the Swedish recycling system, according to marketing manager Marten Sundin at El-Kretsen, a non-profit collection organisation owned by producers’ trade organisations.
- Availability of recycling drop-off locations
The Swedish collection system is well-distributed, easily accessible and keeps improving over time. Information is easily accessible on municipalities’ or recycling organisations’ websites. The Swedish system also provides multiple collection methods.
- Transparent data collection and sharing
The Swedish system tracks and monitors the amounts of e-waste generated and processed, the composition of the waste, efficiency of collection and recycling methods. This enables the government to assess and set reduction and recycling rate targets and provide a foundation for efficient policymaking.
- Extensive recycling campaigns and public buy-in
The Swedish EPR requires the various stakeholders involved in the recycling scheme to inform and educate consumers on why and how to segregate and recycle their e-waste. Sweden’s recycling campaigns are a quality and invested effort that clearly communicates that recycling is a priority. Strong campaigning and communication ensure the Swedes are continuously educated and updated, maintaining high collection rates while ensuring the environmental-friendly behaviour of future generations.
The success of the Swedish system derives from a long history of recycling that has cultivated a “recycling culture” in the population as well as a general consensus that recycling is something positive, according to Mr Marten Sundin of El-Kretsen. This is evident in high recycling rates across a wide range of materials. Sweden’s recycling tradition is decades old.
Meanwhile in Singapore, NEA’s study on e-waste reveals that 60% of the respondents don’t know how to dispose of e-waste. Only 6% of the respondents send in e-waste for recycling, 68% is donated, resold or passed to the delivery man, while 26% is placed in the trash bin.
A well-formulated and enforced EPR can ensure that the 68% is responsibly handled. The challenge lies in changing the behaviour and attitudes that result in the 26% of e-waste thrown into the trash bin.
Singapore doesn’t have the privilege of decades of formal recycling. But Singapore has many countries it can glean inspiration from – including its Asian counterparts Japan and Taiwan. And Singapore has other factors in its favour: a long tradition of behaviour change campaigning and a wide variety of easily accessible and often inexpensive electronics repair shops.
In Sweden, the dearth of such shops has caused many Swedes to conveniently recycle their e-waste products. The Singaporean practice of reusing before recycling extracts more value from e-waste and bodes well for the shift towards a zero-waste Singapore.
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Source: The Straits Times, 25 April 2018