State Secretariat for Economic Affairs

e-Waste Management in Developing Countries: Donor’s Motivation and Expectation

Mathias Schluep (Empa),Stefan Denzler (SECO)

E-Waste Management Forum:“Green Business Opportunities”(E-waste 2010), 23-24 November 2010, Marrakech, Morocco

Table of Contents

• SECO‘s Economic Development Cooperation

• Knowledge Partnerships for e-Waste Recycling

• Sustainable Industries for Secondary Resources

• Future Challenges & Expectations

Economic Dev. Cooperation SECO = Swiss Competency Center for Sustainable Economic Dev. of Developing and Transition Countries Sustainable Integration of Partner Countries into Global Economy

Objective Trade Promotion Trade Promotion along Value Chains (Goods and Services!) Framework Conditions for Trade (WTO; MEAs etc.) Market Access for Developing Countries to Switzerland and Europe

In-house competency within SECO Trade Agreements Switzerland (WTO and bilateral) Labour Conditions in Switzerland, and focal point for ILO Swiss Focal Point for OECD Guidelines on MNE Close Contact to Swiss Industry, Retailers, Traders (e.g. Commodities) Location Switzerland, Regional Economic Promotion incl. Tourism

Objectives of SECO‘s Economic Development Cooperation

Economic Development Cooperation

Geographic Focus

Framework Credit VII (approved by Swiss Parliament in December 2008): Seven Priority Countries – Colombia, Peru, Egypt, Ghana, South Africa, Vietnam, Indonesia. (50% of funds)

Cooperation with Transition Countries: Central Asia; Balkan

Cohesion Funds: 10 new EU Members; pending Romania and Bulgaria.

Sustainable Trade and Climate Issues: Emerging markets China and India

Operational Units / Instruments (total 60 staff; 220 million CHF/year)

Macroeconomic Support

Private Sector Promotion (Investment Promotion)

Trade Promotion

Infrastructure Financing

I EXPORT PROMOTION II TRADE POLICY III IMPORT PROMOTION

• COMMODITIES: MULTISTAKEHOLDER ROUNDTABLES FOR SUSTAINABLE COMMODITIES

• INNOVATIVE EXPORT PRODUCTS AND SERVICES (Nichemarketporducts FAIRTRADE, BIODIVERSITY, ORGANIC etc.)

• SECTORAL POLICIES (SERVICES, COMPETITION, TRIPS, GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT etc.)

• IMPLEMENTATION, SUPPORT for MEA (KYOTO, BIODIVERSITY)

• GSP

• SIPPO

• LABELS

• SUPPORT of ESAs

• CONFORMITY ASSESSMENTS

• CLEANER PRODUCTION and CORE LABOUR STANDARDS

• STANDARDISATION BODIES, LABORATORIES

• WTO ACCESSION SUPPORT and IMPLEMENTATION

IMPROVED COMMODITY EXPORTS

IMPROVED EXPORT CAPACITIES OF SMEs

IMPROVED INSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENT FOR EXPORTS

IMPROVED INTEGRATION INTO MULTILATERAL TRADING SYSTEM

IMPROVED ACCESS TO SWISS AND EU MARKET

SEQUENTIAL APPROACH : GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAIN SUPPORT

Cooperation Approach: Value Chains

Examples of Trade Promotion Projects

Cleaner Production Centers (CPC): Information, Assessement, Trainings for Industry and Local Consultants Regarding Eco-Efficiency (UNIDO); Green Credit Lines: Colombia, Peru, Vietnam

Core Labour Standards at company level (Better Work ILO)

CDM Capacity Building: DNAs; CDM Methodologies (World Bank)

Commodity Sustainability Standards: Multi Stakeholder Processes for Tropical Timber, Coffee, Soya, Sugar, Cotton, Biofuels

Biotrade (Biodiversity Management and Exports), UNCTAD

International Trade Center, Geneva

SIPPO = Swiss Import Promotion Program

Knowledge Partnerships for e-Waste Recycling

Why e-waste Recycling?

Information Technologies: Dynamic sector with increasing waste flow; enviromental and health problems when recycling informally

International Regulation (Basel Convention) but difficult to control – what is second hand for use, what is waste?

Economic opportunities: Refurbishment; precious metals, copper; in the long term: Commodity supply problem for certain metals

Switzerland has been pioneer in e-waste recycling: Initiated by the OEM and run through private system operators (SWICO and SENS)

Challenges and opportunities

e-Waste is valuable ... creates jobs … can be hazardous!

Copper sludge sorting of plastics desoldering of components

History e-Waste Programme

July 2003 concept clearance SECO for entire 3-phase programme and funding for Phase 1 (Assessment).Decisions in Aug'04 for Phase 2 (Planning) and in Aug'05 for Phase 3 (Implementation).Phase 3 completed in China, India (3Q05 -Dec'08) and South Africa (Dec’09).Latin America extension Peru and Colombia (assessment/planning in 2007/2008). Activities in both countries officially started in Jul'09 for 3 years. Currently investigating for a possible Phase 4: widening the focus from “e-waste only” to “Sustainable Industries for Secondary Resources”

Sink

control input

GHG emissions

feedback /indicators

e.g. Metalsrefine,

processmanu-facture

use &consume

recyclemine

Energy

Technology , Economics, Politics, Legislation, Society

Sustainable Industriesfor Secondary Resources

Source e.g. Waste

Sustainable Industriesfor Secondary Resources

• A considerable and fast growing share of essential non renewable natural resources end up in end-of-life consumer products in developing and transitional countries

• There, if at all, they often are recovered inefficiently and at great external costs by an informal sector / industry and hardly can compete with established primary resources.

• Improvements in capacities and efficiencies for the recovery and return of secondary resources as well as the participation of the aforementioned industries in the global commodity trade is paramount

refine, purify,

enhance, certify, ...

recycle, recover,

dismantle, segregate,

sort, ...

Private

Corporate

InformalScrap Delaer

Rag Pickers

Middlemen(Auction)

InformalSector

InformalDisposal &

Burning

Consume Collection Recycling Disposal

1

2

3

1

2

3

Auction and donation as a cheap disposal option

Insufficient handling of critical fractions, Burning of plastics,Recovery of gold with cyanid und mercuryEmissions to the environment through leaching and burning

Example: Pilot Bangalore

Example: Pilot Bangalore

Informal sector Bangalore

• only 20% gets recovered• > 60% loss due to the manual

dimantling process• > 50 % loss due to the wet-

chemical leaching process• Emissions are dramatic: up to 400x

European thresholds

State of the art smelter

• Recovery rate of up to 95%• Plus other metal, e.g. paladium,

silver, copper etc,

• High – tech off-gass control and treatment system

Example: Pilot Bangalore

Idea: Combination of the strengths = “Best of 2 Worlds:participation of the informal sector in the global commodity

trade

• Using the strengths– local: collection, „intelligent“ sorting and dismantling (traditional strengths)– International: High Tech Recycling in Europe of the critical fractions

(especially printed circuit boards & batteries)• Solution:

– Development of a cooperative structurer for buying from the familiy businesses and accumulating critical volumes

– When critical volumes are reached (container size) export to hight tech refinery

– Financial return goes back to the informel sector via the cooperative structure -> income should be higher than before and still pay for the transport

• Pilot currently enters the crucial phase (export licence for shipping the first container) with internat. partnership with Empa, Umicore, GTZ & StEP

Future Challenges & Expectations

Scaling up/ consolidation of current achievements

Multiplication in other developing countries

Adaptation to local/national circumstances, find the most efficient way

E-waste recycling is a Public Private Partnership!

Regulation is needed; but public sector does not need to run recycling facilities

Extended producer responsibility: „buy-in“ from the IT industry

International cooperation/trade with specialized recycling companies

International Standards for safe and efficient e-waste recycling

E-waste / Secondary Resources sustainability standard?

Contact

Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) Technology and Society Laboratory

Mathias Schluep, Program Manager Tel.: +41 71 274 78 57 Fax: +41 71 274 78 62

e-mail: mathias.schluep@empa.chEmpa Web Site: www.empa.ch/tsl, www.ewasteguide.info

State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) Trade Cooperation

Stefan Denzler, Program Manager Tel.: +41 31 322 75 62 Fax: +41 31 322 86 30

e-mail: stefan.denzler@seco.admin.chSECO Web Site: www.seco-cooperation.ch