By Laju Iren

According to recent studies, the average user gets a new phone about every 18 months and then ends up retiring the old one. While the emphasis is mostly on the new device, little attention is paid to what happens to the old one.

Nigeria, a mobile consumption giant with a craze for all things new and foreign can identify with this fact. The country is seventh in the world in terms of mobile phone usage with over 167 million mobile phones in use as at February 2014. Another report recorded that Nigeria is responsible for 40 percent of the smart phone sales in Africa. As nearly every other property in the Nigerian culture, used mobile phones are sold or passed on from one family member or friend to another. But at the end of the day, mobile devices will not be in use forever, and have to be disposed of eventually.

That is where the problem arises. Mobile Devices contain a variety of toxic materials that can poison the soil, water and air. In many advanced countries, most major mobile device carriers will allow you to drop off your older devices. But this is not a common practice in Nigeria. In fact, Nigeria has no long term plan for disposal of such devices, but is instead a dumping ground for such devices by many western countries.

According to a study by Christine Terada on recycling electronic wastes in Nigeria, electronic waste, e-waste, contains approximately 1,000 chemicals that are hazardous to human health. It is estimated that 500 containers of second-hand electronics are imported to Nigeria every month from Europe, with each container holding about 500 computers. About three quarters of these imported devices are junks that cannot be reused and are dumped in landfills.

Terada’s study shows that roughly 45 percent of Nigeria’s e-waste imports are shipped from the United States and another 45 percent comes from the European Union, EU. Exporters from the West usually intentionally mix bad electronic parts with good ones to reduce disposal costs.

Studies by the Nigeria ministry of environment suggest that basic components such as lead are being recovered and smelted in people’s backyards, which pose a risk of lead poisoning. Professor Oladele Osibanjo of the University of Ibadan said that researchers have found excess heavy metal in the soil, as well as in plants. Furthermore, unregulated e-waste dismantling has led to illness in grazing animals, tainted vegetables and contaminated drinking water. Gbenga Adebayo, the Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria, ALTON, raised a salient point while speaking to stakeholders in Lagos last year.

Nigerian environment

“There are issues peculiar to the Nigerian environment that we must take into cognizance when we do research and development. Many developed countries have a disposal policy for mobile devices. But what is our disposal policy as a nation?”

Young as the mobile industry in Nigeria is, the issue of e-waste is already gigantic challenge. The market will grow, and unfortunately so will the waste. But the question remains: Where do mobile devices go to where they are no longer in use? In Nigeria, the answer is nowhere. If they are thrown into the bin, they will come back in the soil. If they are burnt with fire, they will come back as poisonous fumes. It they are thrown in the sea, they will come back through drinking water.