State Secretariat for Economic Affairs

1. State Secretariat for Economic Affairs e-Waste Management in Developing Countries: Donor’s Motivation and Expectation Mathias Schluep (Empa), Stefan Denzler (SECO) E-Waste Management Forum: “Green Business Opportunities” (E-waste 2010), 23-24 November 2010, Marrakech, Morocco

2. Table of Contents • SECO‘s Economic Development Cooperation • Knowledge Partnerships for e-Waste Recycling • Sustainable Industries for Secondary Resources • Future Challenges & Expectations

3. Objectives of SECO‘s Economic Development Cooperation Economic Dev. Cooperation SECO = Swiss Competency Center for • Sustainable Economic Dev. of Developing and Transition Countries • Sustainable Integration of Partner Countries into Global Economy Objective Trade Promotion • Trade Promotion along Value Chains (Goods and Services!) • Framework Conditions for Trade (WTO; MEAs etc.) • Market Access for Developing Countries to Switzerland and Europe In-house competency within SECO • Trade Agreements Switzerland (WTO and bilateral) • Labour Conditions in Switzerland, and focal point for ILO • Swiss Focal Point for OECD Guidelines on MNE • Close Contact to Swiss Industry, Retailers, Traders(e.g. Commodities) • Location Switzerland, Regional Economic Promotion incl. Tourism

4. Economic Development Cooperation Geographic Focus • Framework Credit VII (approved by Swiss Parliament in December 2008): Seven Priority Countries – Colombia, Peru, Egypt, Ghana, South Africa, Vietnam, Indonesia. (50% of funds) • Cooperation with Transition Countries: Central Asia; Balkan • Cohesion Funds: 10 new EU Members; pending Romania and Bulgaria. • Sustainable Trade and Climate Issues: Emerging markets China and India Operational Units / Instruments (total 60 staff; 220 million CHF/year) • Macroeconomic Support • Private Sector Promotion (Investment Promotion) • Trade Promotion • Infrastructure Financing

5. Cooperation Approach: Value Chains

6. Examples of Trade Promotion Projects • Cleaner Production Centers (CPC): Information, Assessement, Trainings for Industry and Local Consultants Regarding Eco-Efficiency (UNIDO); Green Credit Lines: Colombia, Peru, Vietnam • Core Labour Standards at company level (Better Work ILO) • CDM Capacity Building: DNAs; CDM Methodologies (World Bank) • Commodity Sustainability Standards: Multi Stakeholder Processes for Tropical Timber, Coffee, Soya, Sugar, Cotton, Biofuels • Biotrade (Biodiversity Management and Exports), UNCTAD • International Trade Center, Geneva • SIPPO = Swiss Import Promotion Program • Knowledge Partnerships for e-Waste Recycling

7. Why e-waste Recycling? • Information Technologies: Dynamic sector with increasing waste flow; enviromental and health problems when recycling informally • International Regulation (Basel Convention) but difficult to control – what is second hand for use, what is waste? • Economic opportunities: Refurbishment; precious metals, copper; in the long term: Commodity supply problem for certain metals • Switzerland has been pioneer in e-waste recycling: Initiated by the OEM and run through private system operators (SWICO and SENS)

8. Challenges and opportunities e-Waste is valuable ... creates jobs … can be hazardous! Copper sludge sorting of plastics desoldering of components

9. History e-Waste Programme • July 2003 concept clearance SECO for entire 3-phase programme and funding for Phase 1 (Assessment). • Decisions in Aug'04 for Phase 2 (Planning) and in Aug'05 for Phase 3 (Implementation). • Phase 3 completed in China, India (3Q05 -Dec'08) and South Africa (Dec’09). • Latin America extension Peru and Colombia (assessment/planning in 2007/2008). Activities in both countries officially started in Jul'09 for 3 years. • Currently investigating for a possible Phase 4: widening the focus from “e-waste only” to “Sustainable Industries for Secondary Resources”

10. Sustainable Industriesfor Secondary Resources GHG emissions Energy manu-facture use & consume refine, process recycle mine Source Sink e.g. Metals e.g. Waste feedback / indicators control input Technology , Economics, Politics, Legislation, Society

11. Sustainable Industriesfor Secondary Resources refine, purify, enhance, certify, ... recycle, recover, dismantle, segregate, sort, ... • A considerable and fast growing share of essential non renewable natural resources end up in end-of-life consumer products in developing and transitional countries • There, if at all, they often are recovered inefficiently and at great external costs by an informal sector / industry and hardly can compete with established primary resources. • Improvements in capacities and efficiencies for the recovery and return of secondary resources as well as the participation of the aforementioned industries in the global commodity trade is paramount

12. Example: Pilot Bangalore Consume Collection Recycling Disposal InformalScrap Delaer Corporate Middlemen(Auction) 3 InformalSector InformalDisposal &Burning 1 Private Rag Pickers 2 1 Auction and donation as a cheap disposal option Insufficient handling of critical fractions, Burning of plastics,Recovery of gold with cyanid und mercury 2 3 Emissions to the environment through leaching and burning

13. Informal sector Bangalore only  20% gets recovered > 60% loss due to the manual dimantling process > 50 % loss due to the wet-chemical leaching process Emissions are dramatic: up to 400x European thresholds State of the art smelter Recovery rate of up to 95% Plus other metal, e.g. paladium, silver, copper etc, High – tech off-gass control and treatment system Example: Pilot Bangalore

14. Example: Pilot Bangalore Idea: Combination of the strengths = “Best of 2 Worlds: participation of the informal sector in the global commodity trade • Using the strengths • local: collection, „intelligent“ sorting and dismantling (traditional strengths) • International: High Tech Recycling in Europe of the critical fractions (especially printed circuit boards & batteries) • Solution: • Development of a cooperative structurer for buying from the familiy businesses and accumulating critical volumes • When critical volumes are reached (container size) export to hight tech refinery • Financial return goes back to the informel sector via the cooperative structure -> income should be higher than before and still pay for the transport • Pilot currently enters the crucial phase (export licence for shipping the first container) with internat. partnership with Empa, Umicore, GTZ & StEP

15. Future Challenges & Expectations • Scaling up/ consolidation of current achievements • Multiplication in other developing countries • Adaptation to local/national circumstances, find the most efficient way • E-waste recycling is a Public Private Partnership! • Regulation is needed; but public sector does not need to run recycling facilities • Extended producer responsibility: „buy-in“ from the IT industry • International cooperation/trade with specialized recycling companies • International Standards for safe and efficient e-waste recycling • E-waste / Secondary Resources sustainability standard?

16. Contact Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) Technology and Society Laboratory Mathias Schluep, Program Manager Tel.: +41 71 274 78 57 Fax: +41 71 274 78 62 e-mail: mathias.schluep@empa.ch Empa Web Site: www.empa.ch/tsl, www.ewasteguide.info State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) Trade Cooperation Stefan Denzler, Program Manager Tel.: +41 31 322 75 62 Fax: +41 31 322 86 30 e-mail: stefan.denzler@seco.admin.ch SECO Web Site: www.seco-cooperation.ch