Making e-waste recycling easy

To Making e-waste help battle the rising tide of recycling easye-waste in South Africa, AST Recycling developed an e-waste recycling bin, Illustration of AST Recycling’s which accepts electronic electronic waste recycling

process

items such as cell phones and laptops.

ccording to the e-Waste

AAssociation of South Africa, South Africa generates about 6.2 kg of e-waste per inhabitant annually and only 12% of that is recycled. The circumstances are further aggravated by the fact that, as of 23 August 2021, it is illegal to dispose of any types of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) to landfill in South Africa.

This means that companies must partner with a licensed recycler of WEEE, ensuring that they take responsibility for the life cycle of the products they put into the market, right through to post-consumer waste disposal.

To help curb the surge of e-waste and promote the effective recycling of electronics in South Africa, AST Recycling has partnered with Leroy Merlin to roll out the installation of e-waste recycling bins at all four of the DIY retailer’s stores.

The AST e-waste bin is custom designed to securely contain the waste until the bin is full, then the recycling company will send a truck to collect the contents. Rodney Peters, head: IT Asset Disposal Recycling at AST Recycling, asserts that there’s an urgent need to prioritise the recycling of e-waste, considering that South Africa is quickly running out of landfill airspace.

“There’s a huge gap in the market for recycling e-waste,” he says. “People know and understand that it’s important to recycle and properly dispose of potentially harmful electronic components but finding a recycling point has always been nearly impossible. The company’s service offering includes:

1E-Waste Collection: AST Recycling team collects electronic waste from the organisation and transports it to a recycling facility – where it will be repurposed, repaired or recycled.

2Data Sanitisation: The data sanitisation solution offered by AST is compliant with the US Department of Defense standard for data sanitisation, DOD 5220.22-M.

3Free Certificates: Free Data Destruction and E-Waste Disposal certificates are issued on request.

4Sustainable Recycling: The AST recycling solutions help to conserve natural resources and reduce the amount of e-waste accumulating in landfills.

“Our team will not only recycle your electronics in an environmentally sound

That’s why we launched this exciting initiative and are working on making sure these bins are accessible to the wider public.”

360° solutions

Established in 2013, AST Recycling is the only ISO 9001, 14001, 27001 and 45001 certified e-waste and spent automotive catalytic converter recycling company in South Africa. Its services also include a full turnkey solution of IT asset management, IT refurbishment and IT asset disposal.

“As recyclers, we are dedicated to working towards a circular electronic waste economy. Moving away from the linear take-make-waste system, AST Recycling is committed to the circular economy, and we are active at every step to reduce, reuse, repair and recycle,” says Peters.

AST e-waste recycling bin outside a Leroy Merlin store

way but will also sanitise your device to European (global best practice) data management standards,” emphasises Peters.

The greener and cleaner choice

The first AST e-waste recycling bin was placed at the Jackal Creek golf estate, in Roodepoort, in March 2021. And although it has seen huge success, Peters asserts that the initial dropoff point proved not to be as convenient and accessible for the general public, as it’s in a restricted access area.

“In late 2020, Jackal Creek was launching different recycling drop-off zones for waste such as paper and plastics. We approached the estate to also secure a space where people can drop off their electronic waste. The launch of the bin was a huge success and we saw a lot of people start recycling their electronics.

“However, from there, we found that it was useful for the residents inside the estate, but very difficult for the public to access it. That is how we progressed from there into the second phase of our initiative.” This phase entailed working with a partner that was not only strategically located around Gauteng but whose premises also guarantee the safety of the bins. That is when AST Recycling approached Leroy Merlin – who has stores in Little Falls, Fourways, Greenstone and Boksburg. This meant that its neighbouring communities would also be able to make use of these convenient bins at the stores.

“We then designed new specialised bins to be placed at those locations, which can take bigger items such as microwaves and smaller TV sets. We wanted to provide a service where we can assist a larger portion of the population with their e-waste recycling needs.”

All four stores have the bins on the premises, which were officially launched in March 2022. The e-waste recycling bins accept: • power tools • printers • TVs • desktop monitors • mobiles and tablets • computers and cables • small electronics • audio and video devices • media players.

Safe and secure

Being cognisant of issues around data security, AST Recycling has also ensured that its e-waste bins are completely secure. Once the electronic devices or components are brought in for recycling, they are subjected to full data sanitisation, so that no information contained on them can fall into the wrong hands. All hard drives are destroyed – never to be reused.

“Another aspect that usually holds people back from recycling their e-waste is that they have concerns about data security, even when the machine is defunct or has been erased. These concerns are valid but if you use an AST recycling bin, you can be confident that we will sanitise your device to US data management standards,” says Peters.

Peters believes that providing a countrywide e-waste recycling solution will contribute to reducing waste in landfills and reducing environmental harm.

“We are extremely passionate about helping the public to be more responsible about recycling e-waste. By making it easy to recycle electronics, we believe that the environmental damage from this waste stream will be mitigated,” Peters concludes.