Azerbaijan dealing with e-waste problem
By Nigar Orujova
Communication and Information Technologies have become an integral part of modern life. The profit of these technologies that develop as fast as our lives is evident and cannot be underestimated. Today, hardly anybody can imagine life without mobile phone or PC. However, few people wonder where all the old technologies go, replaced by the new one.
Electronic waste contains materials that are harmful not only for the health of living objects, but also for the environment. High-tech waste list includes semiconductors, resistors, fuses, power supplies, connecting cables, conventional batteries. They contain cadmium, mercury, chromium, bromine, nickel, lithium and other chemical elements, which emit hazardous carcinogens when decomposed.
Electronic garbage is a pressing problem today around the world and in Azerbaijan, the country that rapidly develops its ICT sector.
The number of internet users in Azerbaijan is increasing annually, as well as the number of mobile users.
Azerbaijan intends to learn from the experience of European countries in the disposal of electronic waste, official at the Institute of Information Technologies of the Azerbaijani National Academy of Sciences Bikas Agayev said.
He said the Institute analyzed the problems of selective collection of e-waste and offered to get acquainted in detail with international experience in the formation of e-waste management systems, define a strategy and technical solutions for the development of this system, develop an action plan in this area and to hold monitoring.
"The main problem in management of the e-waste utilization process in Azerbaijan is lack of legal regulation. Existing regulations are contrary to international standards. The EU has created an effective e-waste management system that covers the entire life cycle of e-waste, their selective collection, primary and recycling and disposal issues," he stressed.
Equally important, Agayev said, is lack of infrastructure and industrial processing of e-waste, while currently a large amount of e-waste has accumulated in commercial entities and households of the country.
Indeed, all of us are facing the problem of discarding at least old phones, and maybe somebody still has a number of them at home.
"Their [e-waist] disposal by burning or burying harms the environment and contributes to the loss of the enormous amount of materials and energy resources. Work on waste management in Azerbaijan mainly covers domestic solid waste. The work conducted at the landfill provides their initial sorting, burning and burying, however, recycling is not provided. All this contributes to the demand for the creation of new waste disposal sites," he noted.
Earlier, the institute reported that the issue of e-waste disposal will be raised at a conference on e-government, which will be held in early December.