Sri Lanka exports e-waste collected from households to Japan

Mahinda Amaraweera- Minister of Environment inspecting the first consignment of electronic and electronic waste exported to Japan.

Sri Lanka exported the consignment of electrical and electronic waste to Japan on October 11 at the INSEE Ecocycle Company office premises in the Katunayake Investment Promotion Zone, a statement from the Environment Ministry said.  

The statement said the Ministry of Environment, the Central Environmental Authority and the Department of Posts jointly implemented the collection of household and electronic waste (e – waste) collected by 600 post offices during the week.   

 “The consignment of electrical and electronic waste exported on Wednesday included three tons of printed circuit board, eight tons of plastic and 13 tons of metal. All these are the waste items that had accumulated in homes until  during the week of collecting electrical and electronic waste.Some of the heavy metals as well as certain chemicals contained in these electrical and electronic waste pose a serious threat to human health.

However, many are unaware that there are dilapidated computers and devices as well as TVs stored in homes.The first stock of electrical and electronic waste to be exported to Ousei kankyo shoji company Japan, especially the precious metal such as gold and platinum reserves contained in Printed Circuit Boards, were segregated by a Japanese company. They pay Sri Lanka according to the weight of the gold and platinum it contains.However, the Minister expressed his gratitude to INSEE Ecocycle Company for introducing a sustainable solution to waste- management in Sri Lanka and said that action would be taken in the next few weeks to receive electronic waste that is yet to be collected from homes. Chairman of the Central Environmental Authority S. Samarasinghe, top officials of INSEE Ecocycle Company.