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The WEEECAM project handling electrical and electronic equipment waste featured in Le Monde
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Le Monde has just published an article on the “ecological time bomb” that waste from electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) represents in Cameroon. The article described the WEEECAM project - supported by the FFEM - as one of the routes to a more effective recycling system in Cameroon.
Classified as “dangerous” by the Basel Convention, WEEE is a major ecological and health issue. Cameroon lacks the infrastructure and collection systems to process the toxic components found in WEEE. Substances harmful to the ozone layer, heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants, greenhouse gases - all of these pollutants continue to proliferate across the country as it undergoes rapid economic and demographic growth.
For this reason, the Cameroon government brought in specific regulations to address this challenge in 2012. “Solidarité Technologique ” and “ The European Guild " then launched a pilot initiative to handle computer-derived WEEE, part of which was the ongoing FFEM-financed WEEECAM project.
Longer-term, this includes setting up large-scale WEEE collection systems in the towns of Douala and Yaoundé. This follows on from the installation of a dedicated WEEE processing system, optimised both environmentally and economically. Successful replication of this project can be assisted by capitalising and building upon the experience gained from it.