Waste Management Outlook for Mountain Regions

E-waste. Photo © iStock/Kaycco

change these devices, has led to a growing problem of electronic waste (e-waste). Launched in 2010 in Nairobi, and the first of its kind in East Africa, theWaste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Centre is a not-for profit organization operated by local entrepreneurs that collects, dismantles and processes e-waste for the capital and several other major Kenyan cities. Similarly, the East African Compliant Recycling Company is working with the private sector in Nairobi and other Kenyan cities to collect and treat cathode ray tube monitors. These initiatives have helped in the development of the first legislation on e-waste (under the leadership of Kenya's National Environmental Management Agency). Similarly, in Latin America, e-waste is becoming a priority for national and local governments and has generated significant private sector involvement (although still on a small scale). In some of Colombia’s major cities, separation of e-waste at source is already taking place. Construction of landfills Both Colombia and Mexico have managed to reduce the use of open dumps as a method of solid waste disposal (Del Pilar Tello Espinoza et al., 2010). In other Latin America countries, the proportion of the population covered by sanitary landfills is relatively low, 8 mainly because of the low priority given by local authorities to the issue, the costs involved and investment needed for the operation and maintenance of landfills, and institutional weakness – particularly the failure to enforce existing laws and regulations. In Kunming (China) there are two landfills in operation, one of which is financed through a carbon credit project (Scheinberg, Wilson and Rodic-Wiersma, 2010). In other low-income countries such as Ethiopia and the Republic of Yemen, the prospects are less optimistic, largely because of poverty and internal conflicts.

34