E-waste facility in Malabon to give community workers safe, sustainable livelihood
A NEW e-waste facility that can process parts from discarded television sets recently broke ground in Malabon City and is set to begin operations early next year, environment group EcoWaste Coalition said on Tuesday.
The treatment, storage and disposal (TSD) project is a partnership between the Environment department, United Nations Industrial Development Organization, Globe Telecom, Inc., EcoWaste, Integrated Recycling Industries, Inc., and the Barangay Dampalit village government.
The $43,000 facility is scheduled to be fully operational in Jan. 2022, once the technical training is completed.
In an emailed statement, EcoWaste said the e-waste project can process cathode-ray tubes or glass displays from TV sets which will be collected from Malabon and Tondo, Manila.
Residents of Barangay Capulong, Tondo and Barangay Longos, Malabon are involved in the informal e-waste sector as they dismantle and dispose of gadgets.
“These activities, when mishandled and executed in an unsafe manner, would expose the workers and the environment to the toxic substances present in e-wastes, such as lead, arsenic, mercury, and PBDE (polybrominated diphenyl ethers), among others,” EcoWaste said.
Nagkakaisang Lakas ng mga Mangangalakal ng Longos member Joanna Amican said the new e-waste project will help facilitate the communities’ entry into the formal waste sector.
“Through the establishment of the e-waste TSD Facility, we, as informal waste workers, will have an opportunity to be part of a formal sector where there is an access to a safe workplace and operation and where we can have a sustainable livelihood without endangering our personal health, our community’s health, as well as the environment,” she said. — Angelica Y. Yang
