KUCHING: There is a need to reduce waste including e-waste in order to protect human and environmental health.
In stating this, Kuching City South Council (MBKS) Mayor Datuk Wee Hong Seng said people must not also forget the negative impact of e-waste.
“We should try to achieve less rubbish as well as e-waste. We need to move a step forward, while enjoying technology, but forgetting the negative side of it.
“So, together let’s play a role. Because this is our planet, we should protect it and it belongs to everyone including this and the next generation,” he said.
He said during the electric and electronic e-waste buy-back campaign at the Mayor Song Swee Guan Park here on Sunday (Sept 11).
He stressed electrical and electronic products need to be managed throughout their life cycle.
“E-wastes management is a concern not only because of the tremendous increase in its quantity but also because it has grown in increasing complexity.
“In addition, e-wastes contain a lot of toxic ingredients such as lead, beryllium, mercury, cadmium and brominated flame retardants. These are highly hazardous substances which may pose both occupational and environmental health threats,” he said.
Wee said however e-wastes can also be another source of raw material if it can be efficiently recovered in an environmentally sound manner.
“Recycling of e-waste also contributes to the reduction of greenhouse gases because significantly less energy is used when compared with primary mining,” he said.
He added the involvement of manufacturers and importers in implementing Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is also important.
“Extended Producer Responsibility means that producers bear a certain degree of responsibility for proper recycling and management of the products that they produced even after the products are used and disposed of,” he said.
In this regard, he said there is a need to develop capacity to manage recovery efforts in a sustainable manner.
“Technologies are evolving rapidly in terms of products, waste streams, and recovery processes. We also need to develop schemes on the collection and segregation of e-waste, including take-back schemes, the initiation of pilot repair, refurbishment and recycling schemes,” he said.
To address various environmental issues, he said it must be ensured that the recycling programmes are carried out at their homes, work places and their surroundings.
“I urge the private sector, community associations, non-governmental organisations and all Kuchingites to seize this opportunity to promote urgent and lasting action.
“The world cannot wait another ten or twenty years in theoretical debates and political negotiations.
“Whenever else divides us, humanity shares a single planet. Let us work together to truly make Kuching ‘Green’ with an ecological footprint that is sustainable for all our future generations to come,” he said.
The electric and electronic e-waste buy-back campaign is co-organised by MBKS, Natural Resources and Environmental Board (NREB), Department of Environment (DOE), and Trienekens (Sarawak) Sdn Bhd.
