East African Computer Recycling Centre (EACR) which was established by HP and Camara education yesterday launched an e- waste recycling facility in Mombasa. According to the EACR director Ken Mbwaya, the e-recycling plant will help the country to attain proper health and environment condition. He said that the company will be receiving e-waste from formal and informal sectors and pay them incentives.
He noted that currently, Kenya generates 3000 tons of e- waste every year and it also increases by 20 per cent each year, a fact he said has led to so many diseases like cancer. “The risks generated by these wastes not only affect people’s health directly but also nature itself, often where ecosystems are already fragile,” he said.
He said that EARC has already collected IT from more than 100 customers, and in the past month alone has processed nearly eight tons of IT from Kenyan businesses and informal collection schemes. Mbwaya also said that by next week the facility is scheduled to have a collection of eight tons from a single customer.
Today hp successfully runs IT recycling projects in more than 50 countries across the world. Through the hp planet partners return and recycling programme, launched in 1987, the company has a cooperate goal to recycle 900,000 tons of hardware and hp print cartridges by the end of this year.
Mbwaya said that currently 884, 000 tons have been recycled and more than 186, 000 ton have been reused. Assistant minister Higher Education Asman Kamama, who launched the facility, said that the company will help Kenya to solve one of its toughest challenges in environment.
He called on other investors to come up with more facilities to make the work easier. Director General NEMA Ayub Macharia challenged the all procurement and disposal entities to only dispose to licensed garages which are currently two in the country. He said that soon fake garages will be closed down.
