Feel free to leave a comment

Master Thesis, Master of Science in Environment; Specialisation : Local dynamics of development, territorial politics and resource management. Anahide Bondolfi. Jury: Prof. Suren Erkman (UNIL, IPTEH) Soutenu le /Defended on; Prof. Ronald Jaubert (UNIL, IGUL) 9.3.2007; Dr. Mathias Schluep (EMPA) Lausanne, Switzerland.

Download the paper (7 pages, pdf 645 Ko) presented at the R’07 World Congress in Davos, September 2007

Summary

Electronic waste, or e-waste for short, is a fast growing waste stream, not only in developed countries but also in countries in transition such as South Africa. Although South Africa recycles some of its e waste, most of it is in storage, mostly because there is no take back system. Thus, the equipment looses value for second use. Furthermore, some processors and refurbishers import broken equipment such as old computers because there is not enough material easily available locally. This could be illegal according to the Basel Convention, which regulates the transboundary movement of hazardous wastes.
There are many unsound processes in the handling of e waste because there is no proper management system for e waste. Many hazardous components are illegally dumped and informal recycling occurs such as open burning of wires and dumping of monitors. Health and environmental risks are associated with those activities.
This study proposes a model through a Green e-Waste Channel by defining the role of possible stakeholders. The Channel is defined as the infrastructure and the processes needed to reuse and recycle e waste. The main stakeholders are refurbishers, collectors and processors. Producers, the government and NGO’s can support the Green e-Waste Channel through a management, legislative and facilitative process. The potential role of each stakeholder is discussed.
The viability of the model of a Green e-Waste Channel in South Africa was assessed through a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats). The analysis shows that the model reveals many opportunities with advantages for all stakeholders: a) sufficient material can be provided to processors and refurbishers, b) safe jobs can be created, c) a convenient solution can be provided for the consumers, d) a solution for end-of-life equipment can be offered for the producers, and e) the channel helps respecting national and international regulations. In addition the current situation in South Africa is favourable for a successful introduction of a Green e-Waste Channel: the e-waste situation is relatively clean, with limited import and informal recycling, and there is a general move towards more sustainable waste management.

A church at the lake Sevan

Mont Ararat, symbol of Armenia but actually in Turkey, seen from the plane.

.

 Anahide Bondolfi
25 years, Swiss, single
Rue du Tunnel 5, CH- 1005 Lausanne
E-mail: anahide (dot) bondolfi (at) gmail (dot) com

.

.
EDUCATION ________________________________

2005-2007: Master of Science in Environment. University of Lausanne, Switzerland.

2001-2005: Bachelor of Science in Biology. University of Lausanne.

2003-2004: Learning of Spanish and English: gap year for travelling in Latin America and Australia.

2000-2001: Study of Germanistik and Philosophy. University of Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany.

1997-2000: Federal Latin and Greek High School degree. Lausanne.

.
WORK EXPERIENCE ____________________________

2007 : Work for the Swiss Humanitarian NGO KASA, Armenia – 1 month
• Analysis of environmental issues: site visits, meetings with local NGO’s and government representatives.

2006: Internship for the Master Thesis at the Basel Convention Regional Centre Pretoria, South Africa. In collaboration with the Swiss Federal Institute for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA) and the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) – 3 months
• Situation analysis and awareness raising on electronic waste management, interviews with waste managers. Master Thesis (128 pages): “Model for a reuse and recycling system of electronic waste in South Africa”.

2006: Internship at the association South Ardèche Environment Development (SAED) - 2 months
• Team leader of a group of 4 university students for a study on sustainable development of Ardèche. Interviews with local politicians. Paper to be published.

2006-2007: Part-time work for the Foundation Ynternet.org, Lausanne
• Writing of project proposal and final reports for EU Socrates/Grundtvig projects and Interreg programme.

2005-2007 : Part-time work for Frédéric Gonseth Productions and the FVC (a Foundation to promote the cinema from Vaud, Lausanne)
• German-French translation, administrative work, accountancy and database management for a website.

2003-2004: Work experience in Latin America
• Volunteer work on a see turtle protection project, Costa Rica.
• Internship in an orphanage, Peru.

2003: Full-time work for the private High School « les Arches », Lausanne – 2 months
• German teacher.

.
LANGUAGE SKILLS_________________________________

French: Mother tongue

English: Very good knowledge. Cambridge Certificate in Advanced English, 2006

German: Very good knowledge. Certificate “Zentrale Oberstufenprüfung ZOP” from Goethe-Institut, 2001.

Spanish: Good knowledge. Certificate of intermediary level “DELE”, 2004.

Italian: Basic knowledge

.
COMPUTER SKILLS__________________________________

Microsoft Office/ OpenOffice, Mac and PC
Website design (www.decarbonisation.ch) with DreamWeaver
Basic knowledge of the statistical tool “R” and of Java programming

.
INTERESTS________________________________________

Dance (salsa), hiking, diving (PADI Dive Master certificate)
Learning of new languages and discovering of new cultures

Water:
Although the resources of water are sufficient in this mountain country, the population doesn’t have water more than 4 hours a day, even in the capital : the management system is really bad.

During the soviet time, the level of lake Sevan, the major Armenian lake, dropped dramatically because of irrigation and hydroelectric plant. The level is currently slowly going up again, but many illegal constructions are now below the level of the rising lake…

Air:
In most cities, the dust concentration exceeds 2 to 3 times the allowed maximum. The cars are old and don’t have filter, polluting the air (heavy metals etc.)

In the few mining and industrial cities (Alaverdi, Ararat, Hrazdan), the air is very polluted because the industry doesn’t invest in clean technology.
Armenia has a very low level of CO2 emissions because there is not much industry and also because 30% of the cars in Armenia use gas instead of oil (for economic and political reasons). Europe targets 10% for 2020, so this percentage is extremely high.

Interesting documentary movies can be seen on : www.armeniatree.org

Forests :
There are 29 times less green areas per inhabitant in Yerevan than the international standard. Most of the trees in parks are cut to build new bars, and some say that we should count the number of restaurant seats per inhabitant instead of the number of trees…

« Although it is assumed that the greatest loss of Armenia’s forests occurred during the energy crisis in 1991-94, the cutting and devastation continue at alarming rates: according to World Bank estimates, Armenia’s forests will be eradicated in 20 years if cutting continues at the same pace.
An estimated 70% of wood cut in Armenia is used for heating and cooking purposes. Reducing the demand for wood fuel is central to protecting Armenia’s forests, but replacing wood with natural gas or other energy sources for heating requires an up front investment that most families cannot afford. The three main components of woodcutting include: official cutting, illegal cutting by business operations and individuals. Therefore, forest destruction continues to be driven by a combination of the high demand for cheap fuel and a lack of enforcement of forest protection standards. Corruption, illegal cutting and inadequate forest policies must be addressed. »
Source : www.armenianforests.am

For waste, see the article “Armenia: the smoking waste”

The Nubarashen dump site in Yerevan, with the Mont Ararat on the background

Here is a short summary of some of my findings after 3 weeks working on environmental issues in Yerevan for KASA, a swiss-Armenian NGO.

Many local environmental NGOs want to do awareness rising on environmental issues.
But how to teach people not to throw their garbage in the backyard, in the river or let it behind them after a pick nick in the nature, when there are only few garbage bins?
And when there are garbage bins, a lot of accumulated waste is not taken by the municipality but burnt in the garbage bin itself. When the garbage bin is emptied by the municipality, it is just brought outside of the city or the little town, where they are dumped.

Many towns in Armenia don’t have an official landfill site, and even if there is an official place to bring the waste, there is not a single sanitary landfill site in the country. The dump site is not protected against leaching, causing soil and water pollution. To reduce the space used for waste, the waste is burnt on the dump site all over the country. Added to the soil and air pollution of the waste itself, the burning causes air pollution.

The Nubarashen “landfill”, the dump site of Yerevan, is a huge smoking pile of burning waste. Dioxin and other polluting substances pollute the air of the capital, with associated risk for the population’s health.

« According to 2006 data provided by the Yerevan Municipality, 10% of the municipal waste that goes to Nubarashen landfill is paper, 25% is food waste, 3 percent is textile, 3% polyethylene, 5% is glass, 43% are stones and livestock excrement. »
source: www.hetq.am/eng/ecology/0706-waste.html

However, there are paper, glass and plastic recyclers in the country, but they recycle only very small amount of waste – for instance, the paper is received from some schools. They struggle to find enough waste to increase their business because there is almost no separation at source in Armenia.

Besides awareness rising actions that are starting now – mostly in schools- a management system for waste should be done, with a separation for recyclables (paper, glass, plastic), in order to reduce the amount of waste that gets to the landfill. Sanitary landfill sites should be organised.