Electronic Waste (e-waste) Management Services

Our commitment to our mission as an environmentally friendly organization led us to establish an Electronic Waste Management division in 2018. This business division serves as an integrated project to provide value chain support for our facilities management operations, and it is responsible for providing waste management services for all electronic waste streams such as Waste Lead Acid Batteries (WLABs) which is a traded commodity in the circular lead economy.

Our e-waste management division safely collects hazardous Waste Lead Acid Batteries (WLABs) mainly through purchase from aggregators such as Telecom Service providers, Financial Institutions and Manufacturing companies. The waste batteries collected from these sources are mostly dry cells (over 90%), and we provide properly trained Personnel with Personal Protective Equipment and correctly labelled transportation Trucks for the evacuation of the batteries to our e-waste storage facility which is accredited by the National Environmental Standards & Regulatory Enforcement Agency and the Federal Ministry of Environment.

We store WLABs at our storage facility where they are protected from precipitation (e.g., rainfall, dew, fog) and other water sources. We collect and store an average of 500 units of waste batteries in our storage site every month and this will have a total weight of about 15,000kg at each point. We use correctly labelled Transportation Trucks for the scheduled transportation of the batteries as hazardous waste to licensed Recycler facilities (according to pre-agreed terms).

We have designed a simple waste manifest that we administer during our WLAB evacuation and transportation process. The form is filled and signed by all stakeholders involved in the waste battery generation, collection, and disposal process, as this enables the issuance of a ‘Waste Disposal Certificate’ for the WLAB generator at the end of the disposal process. This is one advantage we offer our clients as we ensure they are part of the responsible management of waste battery initiatives in the country and there is documentary evidence being issued by our organization for this.

As part of our integrated solid waste management operations, we also collect Waste Electrical & Electronic Equipment (WEEE) from major waste generating locations such as Telecoms companies, Banks via auction sales and bids. We safely transport these types of waste to recyclers, re-sellers or re-furbishers to ensure we close the loop in the manufacture, sale supply and end-of-life management of electronic equipment.

We have also successfully organised and integrated a network of informal e-waste collectors into our operations, and we offer them training and funding to enable the collection of various categories of WEEE from local communities and streets in Lagos State. We provide these personnel with appropriate PPE and equipment for the collection, evacuation, and storage of e-waste to MRI’s storage facility and for scheduled transportation of the e-waste to a Recycler’s facilities (according to pre-agreed terms).

Our electronic waste management operation is currently part of a Global Environment Facility (GEF)-funded project “Circular Economy Approaches to the Electronics Sector in Nigeria”, which is an initiative that brings together players along the electronics value chain (from government, private sector and civil society) to kickstart a financially self-sustaining circular economy approach for electronics in Nigeria, protecting the environment while creating safe employment for thousands of Nigerians. The project is led by the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) in Nigeria and supported by UNEP. It is targeted at transforming the challenge of a growing production of electronics waste into an opportunity. It aims to promote a circular economy for electronics in Nigeria in which the electronics sector recovers and reintroduces usable materials into the value chain and disposes of hazardous waste streams in an environmentally sound manner.

Our e-waste and WLAB management operations are carried out from our ‘e -waste storage site’ which is a 500 sqm facility located on a 1-acre size land at Ona-Osa bus stop in Ibeju-Lekki, along the Lekki-Epe expressway of Lagos State (Latitude= 6.471250; Longitude= 3.814867). The site has in built facility for storage with adequate covering suitable for storing e- waste items in a manner that can guarantee safety of personnel and prevent environmental degradation from the waste stored.

Our WLAB/E-waste Market Volumes: