As part of the We Care Colombia, the GSMA launched the campaign “eWaste in Colombia”, a review of the e-waste situation in the country. According to report the United Nations University (UNU), e-waste in Colombia will grow more than 19% between 2012 and 2015. The report published by GSMA details the critical role that mobile operators played in e-waste management through a joint voluntary project that allowed more than 646 tons of e-waste between 2007 and 2014.
Led by the Colombian mobile industry, the campaign “Recicla tu móvil o celular y comunícate con la tierra” (Recycle your mobile or cell and communicate with the earth) started in 2007 as a public-private agreement. Telefónica Movistar, Tigo, Claro (in partnership with Nokia, LG, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, ZTE, Samsung and Alcatel) placed 155 collection boxes in 30 cities around the country and initiated an unprecedented communication and awareness campaign. Thus, more than two million items including cell phones, batteries and accessories were collected until 2009, according to data from Belmont Trading, the official campaign manager.
The project continues today as a private-only initiative. Between 2007 and 2014, 646 tons of electronic waste were collected and managed –of which 185 tons comes exclusively from phones, accessories and batteries. In this volume there are 907,613 mobile phones, 703,463 accessories and 2,931,759 batteries. According to Belmont Trading Colombia for 2015 the ideal is to manage a minimum of between 5000 and 8000 items per month, which would equip the average in 2014.
According to Sandra Pascua, Legal Director of the Colombian Chamber of Information Technology and Telecommunications (CCIT), in 2007, “the concept of post-consumer did not exist at that time, it was a new concept for everyone. And something very special in Colombia is that operators joined the table and along with the manufacturers took responsibility in post-consumer actions voluntarily”. The rapid action of the operators served as an example for other industries accelerate sectoral agreements.
Laura Reyes, Environmental Compliance Specialist for Telecommunications and Electronics Industry and BDM Belmont Trading Colombia, said: “we hope that through the actors joint work, the regulation allows to make tangible the efforts telecomunications and electronic industry has being developed in sustainability”.
The “E-waste in Colombia” report by the GSMA, was conducted to support government strategies for a Green Agenda in Colombia. As part of the campaign We Care Colombia, mobile operators committed to support Ministry of Environment and Development and MinTIC initiatives on e-waste and launch a communication and awareness campaign through traditional and digital media, and spread actions promoting source separation and collection of e-waste.
“It is important to highlight these initiatives are done mostly on a voluntary basis within the framework of environmental management programs, sustainability or corporate social responsibility. From GSMA Latin America, we have been working closely with the managers of these areas through the Task Force on Sustainability and Social Responsibility in Latin America, the first of its kind within the GSMA globally”, said Mauro Accurso, and Communications Manager sustainability GSMA Latin America.
In 2014, the GSMA published the report “eWaste in Latin America“, which revealed that electronic waste in the region will grow 17.5 percent in the coming years, from 4.22KT (1KT = thousand tons) in 2012 to 4.96KT in 2015, according to the UNU. Faced with this growing problem, Latin American mobile operators are developing programs, campaigns and projects in compliance with national and international environmental legislation to manage e-waste such as mobile phones, batteries and accessories in the region. The member of the GSMA operators are implementing reverse logistics schemes for collecting, storing, categorizing and final disposal of e-waste. At the same time, regional operators are investing in programs and recycling facilities, conducting leading reforestation and awareness campaigns, among other initiatives.