‘Bote, dyaryo kayo dyan! Sirang TV, radyo, electric fan, bumibili,” a man in his 40s repeatedly shouts as he pedals his pedicab along a narrow street, trying to avoid children playing on the road and the parked cars in this densely populated subdivision in Dasmariñas, Cavite, one sunny day in November.
His pedicab overflows with assorted junk, including broken home appliances that he bought from homeowners of the said subdivision.
The man, who introduced himself as “Mel,” buys and sells junk, which he delivers to a nearby junk shop that lends him his P1,000 daily capital.
Buying and selling junk—from empty bottles, scrap metals, plastic and broken home appliances, electronic equipment or nonfunctioning gadgets—has been his way of life for the last six years. Mel said he decided to do this kind of livelihood because of the lack of better employment opportunity, and to make quick cash that will put food on the table for the family.
“I earn just enough. Sometimes, I earn P400 a day. Sometimes, I earn as much as P600,” he said, speaking in Filipino.
“Sometimes, I get to buy a lot of broken TV sets. Sometimes, I get TV sets in good condition. That’s when sellers ask for a higher price because the television set they are trying to dispose is still functioning. They just want to sell it because they bought a new one,” he told the BusinessMirror.
Broken TV sets, electric fans and washing machines are among the common home appliances that Mel buys, which he delivers to the junk shop.
He pays from P50 to P100 for broken home appliances. One homeowner sold his 31-inch TV set, which is still working, for P250. “I’ll have it checked and see if I can sell it for P500,” he said.
Mel admits that sometimes he sells the broken appliances to repair shops at a marked-up price for a bigger profit.
In the same village, enterprising vendors offer discounts or exchange deals for new ones with buyers of broken household items like plastic basins, pails or water containers.
There are also traders who regularly make the rounds offering to buy broken laptops, tablets or cellular phones, which they repair and sell.
“They fix and sell them as reconditioned or secondhand items,” he said.
Asked how business is doing, all-around electronic technician Manolo M. Dionela said business is not as brisk as it was 20 years ago, when he decided to open his electronic shop.
“Matumal na [Business is now slow],” he said.
“Unlike before, when a lot of people bring all kinds of appliances to shops for repair. Now, they just buy new ones,” he told the BusinessMirror in an interview.
His shop along P. Campos Street in Dasmariñas, Cavite, is filled with broken TV sets and other appliances for repair.
It won’t be long when he will dispose of some of the unclaimed appliances after salvaging usable parts.
“I dispose them from time to time. I only keep what I can use,” he said. For P50 to P100 per piece, he said he is more than happy to sell them to anyone who will pick them up from his shop.
A computer-shop owner said, every year, he also sells old computers that are outdated or obsolete—to people like Mel who is in the business of buying and selling scraps.
All kinds of junk bought by junk shops sometimes go to companies in the business of waste recycling and disposal.
With the evolution of technology and the unending race by makers to develop brand-new electrical and electronic appliances, or equipment and gadgets with advanced features, more and more home appliances and electronic gadgets are being put up for disposal.
Sadly, not all electronic waste end up in recycling facilities.
The National Solid Waste Management Commission (NSWMC) said broken home and kitchen appliances, electrical or electronic equipment or gadgets add up to the already burgeoning solid waste-management problem in the Philippines. These are collectively called electronic waste or e-waste.
The Global E-waste Monitor 2017 said electronic waste refers to all items of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) and its parts that have been discarded by the owners as waste without the intent of reuse.
The International Telecommunication Union, United Nations University, and the International Solid Waste Association released on December 13 a report showing the rising levels of e-waste and its improper and unsafe treatment and disposal.
The report said globally, some 44.7 million metric tons of e-waste were generated in 2016, or about 6.1 kilos per inhabitant on earth.
In the Philippines about 2 to 5 kilos of e-waste were produced per inhabitant, according to the report.
The global e-waste generation will reach 52.2 million metric tons by 2021, according to the same report.
According to the group EcoWaste Coalition, a local waste and pollution watchdog, among the hazardous substances that make up electrical and electronic equipment and their waste are heavy metals, such as cadmium, hexavalent chromium, lead and mercury, and persistent organic pollutants (POPs) such as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDes) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), among dozens of other toxic chemical compounds.
E-waste includes a wide range of products—almost any household or business item with circuitry or electrical components with power or battery supply.
Based on the definition of the Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development, the Global E-waste Monitor 2017 said the definition of e-waste is very broad and covers six waste categories, namely: 1) Temperature exchange equipment, more commonly referred to as cooling and freezing equipment; 2) Screens and monitors, which include televisions, monitors, laptops, notebooks and tablets; 3) Lamps or equipment, which include fluorescent lamps, high-intensity discharge lamps and LED lamps; 4) Large equipment, which include washing machines, clothes dryers, dishwashing machines, electric stoves, large printing machines, copying equipment and photovoltaic panels; 5) Small equipment, which include vacuum cleaners, microwaves, ventilation equipment, toasters, electric kettles, electric shavers, scales, calculators, radio sets, video cameras, electrical and electronic toys, small electrical and electronic tools, small medical devices, small monitoring and control instruments; and 6) Small IT and telecommunication equipment, which include mobile phones, Global Positioning Systems (GPS), pocket calculators, routers, personal computers, printers and telephones.
Also referred to as Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment, e-waste is classified in the Philippines as “hazardous waste” that requires special disposal process or system, including recycling.
Noting the country’s bad reputation when it comes to solid-waste management despite having a supposedly “perfect law” that should address its garbage woes, the country’s e-waste, which qualify as hazardous waste because of their toxic chemical contents, pose greater health and environment problems that require the government’s immediate attention.
Republic Act 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, defines hazardous waste as solid waste or a combination of solid waste, which, because of its quantity, concentration, or physical, chemical or infectious characteristics, may cause, or significantly contribute to an increase in mortality or an increase in serious irreversible, or incapacitating reversible, illness; or pose a substantial present or potential hazard to human health or the environment when improperly treated, stored, transported, or disposed of, or otherwise managed.
The disposal of unsegregated garbage, however, remains a big challenge. This is why the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is looking at waste-to-energy (WTE) solutions to address the looming garbage crisis.
Jonas Leones, the DENR’s undersecretary for policy, planning and international affairs, said with the failure of local government units (LGUs) to enforce RA 9003 on the ground, a possible solution is the introduction of WTE projects through the Public-Private Partnership Program (PPP). However, environmental groups are strongly opposed to waste-to-energy ventures that use incinerators, which are banned in the Philippines.
Leones, in previous interviews, maintained that the 3Rs of waste management–reduce, reuse and recycle–will not work in areas with no adequate number of recycling facilities, or junk shops to start with, such as in the Visayas and Mindanao.
This, however, does not mean that the DENR is abandoning its mandate, particularly to make sure that RA 9003 is implemented, he said.
Despite the opportunity of turning garbage into gold, LGUs are not keen on practicing waste recovery or recycling because there are no junk shops or waste-recycling facilities that will buy the recyclable materials.
“We do not have enough recycling facilities. That is why waste segregation is not fully implemented in many areas,” he said.
However, there is already a growing market for special waste.
Such venture, however, will require a huge investment to start with, and the efficient implementation of waste segregation at source to recover recyclable materials produced in a particular area.
Eligio Ildefonso, executive director of the National Solid Waste Management Commission (NSWMC) Secretariat, said some components of home appliances, electronic equipment or gadgets are recyclable, which is why they are targets of junk dealers, waste-pickers and even garbage collectors. However, a huge volume of this so-called e-waste still end up being burned in open dumps, backyards or vacant lots.
Worse, he added, there is no empirical data on e-waste to suggest “how big” the problem is as far as the Philippines is concerned.
The DENR, through the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB), which implements its hazardous waste management program, maintains a list of recycling facilities in the Philippines.
The list includes 23 plastic-recycling facilities, 14 paper-recycling facilities; one facility specializing in car batteries; one for computer electronics; one for tin cans; two for metals; six for container glass; one for flat grass; one for tetrapak and six for car tires.
There is no assurance that all these recycling facilities are enough to accommodate the volume of waste that will encourage proper segregation and recycling to prevent the proliferation of e-waste that may eventually lead to air, water and soil pollution.
Ildefonso said the NSWMC will have to start from scratch by coordinating with other concerned government agencies, such as the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC), and the private sector, if we are to establish a baseline data relevant to e-waste generation.
“That is the problem. We do not have sufficient data on e-waste,” he told the BusinessMirror in an interview last week.
The problem on e-waste is now a growing global concern because of the technological evolution and race to produce more and more new products to replace those rendered “obsolete,” including the most recent models by home appliances and electronic products manufacturers.
The Philippines is currently producing 40,000 tons of waste every day, with around 9,000 metric tons being produced by Metro Manila, the country’s National Capital Region.
There are a total of 9,883 materials-recovery facilities (MRFs) serving 13,155 barangays. However, there are over 40,000 barangays in the country.
As of December 2016, there are still 403 open dumps, 103 controlled disposal facilities and only 130 landfill.
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