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 ewaste, in South Africa and on the rest of the continent.

The project, known as the Urban Mining Project – as urban mining is essentially a beneficiation process of extracting value from the ewaste 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 says that the project team is finalising the project plan before its roll-out in January 2014. The first step of the project will entail hosting a national e-waste collection day.

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

Mintek Research & Devel-opment GM Makhapa Makhafola says Mintek and eWasa have 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 ewaste 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 ewaste 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 points out that the main outcome of the Urban Mining Project will be to create a locally developed mobile solution that can 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 ewaste recycling.”

Anderson says that, traditionally, the cost of reverse logistics is one of the largest hurdles in terms of transporting ewaste to the point of proper treatment.

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

The testing of this technology will start early next year.

Anderson asserts that the collaboration between Mintek and eWasa in developing mobile recycling units is an initiative that will be a watershed for the industry and the country.