The plant known as Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) becomes east and central Africa’s first ever recycling centre that converts old computers into TV sets. Started by Kenya’s Tom Musili, he says this is intended to end electronic waste in the country aside from making TVs affordable.
“We convert thin film transistor (TFT) monitors into TV screens, turning a PC into a TV requires skill, and it’s something we have been perfecting at the WEEE Centre,” Musili said.
The computers are stripped to the component parts. Later, everything reclaimable is put to a new use. The copper and aluminium are set aside. The plastic, being pliable, finds many new uses, and best of all, there’s always a swanky-looking flat screen television at the end of the day.
The TVs with TFT have a decent resolution, are affordable, of high quality and durable. Musili’s TFT TVs cost KSh4000.
The plant has since teamed up with eight countries including Ghana, Madagascar, Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe to promote eWaste management.
Musili says, in 2002, he began a project in collaboration with Computers for Schools in Kenya (CFSK) aimed at sourcing for donated computers for Kenyan schools. According to him, this set the backdrop against which the recycling plant was founded.
“Thus, the TVs from PC project took on a life of its own and then when Barclays Bank donated 200 computers through Digital Links, a UK social enterprise, my dream had come true,” he says.
They donated over 50,000 computers throughout Kenya. However, he says he realised that low cost computers were not helping much as they would end up dumped at the offices once obsolete.
“We were starting to see that some of the donated computers had pretty much reached their end-of-life, and we had to return to the schools to collect them,” Musili explained.
Since dumping waste electrical and electronic equipment is an environmental hazard, new ways to deal with the spent units had to be found, he adds.
International Telecommunication Union (ITU) secretary general Hamadoun Touré earlier this year said there is already significant progress in improving environmental performance and reducing e-waste through improved best practices and standards.
According to ITU, only 13 percent of the electronic waste is currently recycled, and in some cases, recycling is done without proper safety procedures. The amount of electronic waste is expected to greatly increase in coming years, the ITU says.
