The partnership
between Dell and Kenyan e-Waste Solutions Alliance for Africa (eWSAA) in
Nairobi paved the way for the opening of East Africa Compliant Recycling to
create businesses to be supported by a regulatory model tailored for developing
countries, reports NaijaAgroNet.
The new regulatory
model was developed by Kenyan officials and representatives from
non-governmental organizations and the IT and e-recycling industries.
Speaking at the
opening of the facility, Honorable Amina A. Abdalla, MP, Chairperson, Committee
of Environment and Natural Resources, Kenyan Parliament pointed out that
they we were looking at ensuring that e-waste is recycled in such a manner that
ensures the people are not exposed to hazardous materials.
“And so basically,
we’ve invested in getting out a regulation that is more proactive managing
e-waste. With the regulation, its enforcement, and partnering with not only
recyclers but producers, we’ll go a long way in addressing these challenges,”
Abdalla told NaijaAgroNet.
The Kenyan Environment
Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Water and Natural Resources said
that they were seeing green technology as good business sense, and not
just because it creates profits, but if persons working for such a company are
of higher health status because of a good environment, then productivity also
goes up.
“We want to create
jobs, particularly for our youth. So it’s a triple way: We have a clean
environment, we have jobs created, we have industrial growth and economic
growth of the country,” she underscored.
The Director,
Compliance at Dell Takeback, Jean Cox-Kearns, says “It is so exciting to see
this sustainable model be implemented on the ground in Nairobi, creating green
jobs and implementing a solution that deals with e-waste being generated both
in Kenya and the greater East African Region, and providing environmentally
sound management of e-waste collected.”
Chuks Egbuna/GEE
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