State-owned minerals researcher Mintek and the eWaste Association of South Africa (eWasa) have signed a five-year memorandum of understanding to jointly tackle the growing challenge of dealing with electronic and electrical equipment waste, or e-waste, in South Africa and Africa.

The project, known as the Urban Mining Project – as 'urban mining' is essentially a type of mining beneficiation involving the extraction of value from the e-waste stream – is aimed at creating several new local green jobs and providing sustainable solutions in support of small, medium-sized and microenterprises and the youth.

eWasa chairperson Keith Anderson said the project team was finalising the project plan before its roll-out in January 2014. The first step of the project would entail hosting a national e-waste collection day.

“The collection day is aimed at raising awareness among the general public about e-waste, the hazards associated with the incorrect disposal of e-waste and the consequences thereof,” he said, adding that the public would also be informed as to the location of existing and new e-waste collection points.

Mintek research and development GM Dr Makhapa Makhafola said Mintek and eWasa had many common objectives for the Urban Mining Project. “The collaboration over the next five years will enable us to collectively develop technologies that will not only change the way e-waste is collected and treated in South Africa, but that can also be exported elsewhere on the African continent and worldwide.

“Currently, an enormous amount of value recovered from beneficiation processes is being lost to the country, as e-waste fractions are exported for treatment offshore. One of our aims is to ensure that the technology we develop will be put to good use locally to ensure that communities and the country maximise the beneficiation flows.”

Meanwhile, Anderson pointed out that the main outcome of the Urban Mining Project, would be to create a locally developed mobile solution that could be deployed to urban and rural areas to treat the waste on site.

“Additionally, the project is set to create employment opportunities, provide training and education and [lead to] sustainability in e-waste recycling.”

Anderson said that, traditionally, the cost of 'reverse logistics' was one of the largest hurdles in terms of transporting e-waste to the point of proper treatment.

However, the development of a mobile solution to overcome the challenge of reverse logistics would be developed by scaling down Mintek’s existing recovery technologies into smaller mobile units that could be deployed to collect e-waste throughout the country and, ultimately, the rest of Africa.

The testing of this technology would start early next year.

Anderson asserted that the collaboration between Mintek and eWasa in developing mobile recycling units was an initiative that would be a watershed for the industry and the country.