Medio Ambiente Tic y Uruguay-GSW 2010

7/27/2019 Medio Ambiente Tic y Uruguay-GSW 2010

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URUGUAY / 233

ItrductiUruguay is known or its early take-up o the inormation and

knowledge society, particularly in the Latin American region,

where it is considered one o the countries in the vanguard

o inormation and communications technologies (ICTs).

Such a situation generates new environmental challenges

that are being attended to in the legislative eld through

an important bill that has not yet been passed and in other

good practices carried out by dierent companies and edu-

cational institutions.

plic ad leislative ctext

Uruguay does not contribute signicantly to global warm-

ing: it only generates 0.05% o global greenhouse gas

(GHG) emissions, according to 2004 gures. However, it

is very vulnerable to the adverse eects o climate change,

which threaten the countrys development. In act, extreme

events like foods, droughts and storms, all o which aect

the population, inrastructure, production, services, ecosys-

tems, biodiversity, coast areas and in particular, agriculture,

are becoming more requent.1

For this reason, in May 2009, the National System or

Climate Change Response2 was created to coordinate sever-

al national public and private institutions working on climatechange, including companies, universities, research centres,

trade unions and governmental institutions. This agency cre-

ated the National Climate Change and Variability Response

Plan during 2009, and the rst diagnostics and identication

o vulnerabilities were established.

Regarding electronic waste (e-waste), a specic law

has not been passed yet, although a 2008 bill proposes

an e-waste management system. However, there are some

laws indirectly related to the subject,3 aimed at ratication

o the Basel Convention on the Control o Transboundary

Movements o Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal andregulation o the handling o hazardous waste.4 The Ministry

o Housing, Territorial Planning and Environment with its

subordinate department, the National Department o Envi-

ronment is the regulator and is responsible or ensuring

compliance with environmental laws.

1 Ministry o Housing, Territorial Planning and Environment (2010)NationalClimate Change and Variability Response Plan: Diagnosis and strategicguidelines. www.inac.gub.uy/innovaportal/le/5207/1/Plan%20nacional%20de%20respuesta%20al%20cambio%20clim.pd

2 www.presidencia.gub.uy/_web/cambio_climatico/Decreto%20238-009.pd

3 Laws No. 16.221, No. 17.220 and No. 17.283, available at www.mvotma.gub.uy

4 As per Law No. 17.220, Article 3, hazardous waste is waste rom any originthat due to its physical, chemical, biological or radioactive characteristicsconstitutes a risk to human, animal, plant or environmental welare, whether itis imported, exported or domestically produced waste.

E-waste lic, leislati ad racticeThe number o PCs in homes in Uruguay has increased rap-

idly over the last years. Data show that in 2006, 24.3% o

Uruguayan households had a computer. This gure rose to

35.3% in 2008 and to 44.2% in 2009.5 Even though Uruguay

has always been well positioned in the region when it comes

to access to ICTs, part o this increase is due to the imple-

mentation o the Plan Ceibal, the rst global experience in

applying the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project, an initia-

tive o the Massachusetts Institute o Technology (MIT). As

part o this project, 370,000 XO laptops, specially designed

or OLPC, were distributed to all o the countrys public pri-

mary school students, who were able to take the computers

home. Beginning in 2010, a second phase o this project will

start, during which laptops will be distributed to public sec-

ondary school students.

These acts will place Uruguay in a complex position

in the uture, since large amounts o e-waste are being and

will be generated in the short to medium term. Currently,

e-waste in Uruguay is treated as per general waste policies.

Even though there is no ocial record, it is estimated that

in 2007, 600,000 PCs were being used, and 100,000 are

thrown away each year.6

Although it has not been approved, the 2008 bill thatproposes the creation o an e-waste management system7 is

based on the principle o extended producer responsibility,

in which manuacturers and vendors who introduce technol-

ogies to the market are legally responsible or the treatment

that the devices receive ater their useul lie. Collection and

recycling o e-waste would be delegated to administrators

or public or private organisations, and once recycled, the

manuacturers and/or vendors could use the useul parts

again. The Ministry o Housing, Territorial Planning and

Environment would be in charge o the nal disposal o

non-recyclable pieces, in order to avoid urther impact to theenvironment. Fines between USD 3,500 and USD 12,000 are

oreseen or those who do not comply with the regulations.

The reasons that were stated to justiy the implementa-

tion o the abovementioned law reer to the level o danger

posed by some components o e-waste and their impact

5 Based on the National Continuous Household Survey 2009. Abridged versionavailable in Rivoir, A. L. and Escuder, S. (2010)Sociedad de la Informacin.En que estamos?, p. 3. www.agesic.gub.uy/innovaportal/v/999/1/agesic/la_sociedad_de_la_inormacion_en_estadisticas.html

6 40th Regular Session o the Committee on the Environment o the Senateo the Oriental Republic o Uruguay, 9 September 2008. www.parlamento.

gub.uy/sesiones/AccesoSesiones.aspUrl=/sesiones/diarios/senado/html/20080909s0040.htm#pagina450

7 www.parlamento.gub.uy/websip/lischa/chaap.asp?Asunto=36842&FichaPrint=s

observaTIC, facult Scial Scieces, Uiversit the ReublicSoa Baldizan and Santiago Escuderwww.observatic.edu.uy

URUgUAy


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234 / Global Inormation Society Watch

on the environment. It is also claimed that the amount o

e-waste is increasing at three times the rate o other waste,

particularly when it comes to discarded PCs. The bill reers

to the lack o policies that specically regulate e-waste. It

also points out that the recovery o waste not only oers

relie or the negative environmental impact, but would

also relieve the economic responsibility or the institutions

in charge o collecting the e-waste and its nal disposal,which in Uruguay is currently conducted by municipal

governments.

During the discussion o the bill, it was mentioned that

several countries with similar problems donate obsolete

equipment to underdeveloped or developing countries, a

practice that also happens in Uruguay.

Several important political actors were consulted about

the bill in its early stages. Controversial points included

the expected low prots rom recycling and the health o

the workers who work with the materials. Even though the

three Rs (reduce, reuse and recycle) criteria are applied, it

is elt to be inevitable that a surplus o material that becomes

garbage is generated. In addition, Uruguay does not have the

special technology required or the treatment o monitors

and televisions.

Several people suggested the possibility o building a

hazardous waste landll in the north o the country, where

the rocky ormation rich in basalt would work as an imper-

meable wall. The treatment would be similar to the one that

radioactive waste receives when it is buried in a proper land-

ll. However, the bill does not propose that agencies that

decide on these initiatives in particular the National Depart-

ment o Mining and Geology participate in the matter. Theweakness o the proposal lies in the possible damage to the

deep layers o the Guarani Aquier, one o the most important

drinking water reserves in the world.

To date, the bill has not been passed, although dierent

organisations and people related to the recycling o e-waste

are still being consulted. One o the reasons stated by the

authorities regarding the diculty in the application o the

extended producer responsibility principle is the high per-

centage o clones and orphaned machines that are in the

market, which makes it dicult to identiy who is responsi-

ble or the nal disposal o the device.

The Crecel examle

Although the legal aspect o e-waste has not been dened

yet, there are several experiences and initiatives that are

turning into successul projects. Crecoel serves as one good

example.

Since 2004, Crecoel (Cooperative or the Recycling o

Electronic Devices, as per the Spanish acronym) has been

operating in the Industrial and Technological Park in Mon-

tevideo. The cooperative began with an agreement signed

between the Inter-American Development Bank and San

Vicente, a non-governmental organisation, and training wascarried out in order to improve the working conditions o

waste pickers.

This cooperative is the rst endeavour specialised in

dismantling technological devices (computers, printers,

mobile phones, TVs, etc.). Its main clients are public and pri-

vate companies, which pay or this service. The companies

contact Crecoel through its website8 or are reerred by the

municipalities. It is important to highlight that the service in-

cludes the transportation cost, and the nal cost is 30-50%

cheaper than using the municipalities, which also charge orpicking up e-waste and disposing o it in special plants.

Individuals who deliver their domestic devices to be re-

cycled do not have to pay, since the company only charges

or volumes higher than a cubic metre.

Once the devices are dismantled, part o the materi-

als are sent again to the companies that may reuse them

as replacement parts, and other parts (errous metals and

components) are sent to companies dedicated to the ex-

port o e-waste. One o these companies is Werba,9 whose

main market is China. Only 20% o the material that goes to

Crecoel is thrown away in secure environmental conditions

which are monitored.

Testimonies rom people related to this endeavour

note several positive aspects regarding the ethical princi-

ples o Crecoel. First, it creates work in secure conditions

or amilies who used to be waste pickers, oten working in

unhealthy conditions. Being a cooperative, it also encour-

ages a horizontal, communal style o engagement with its

members.

Finally, it is worth mentioning the diculty they went

through when trying to make the companies understand the

need or charging or the service, given the lack o aware-

ness o the importance o the treatment that this type owaste should receive.

new treds

We can identiy at least three trends regarding the applica-

tion o the three Rs principle.

Art and Programming Workshop (TAP):10 As dened by

one o its coordinators: The aim is to create a space

or the assimilation and learning o the required creative

skills to build, assemble, design, and recover hardware

and sotware; to demystiy technology and at the

same time, to incentivise multidisciplinary teamworkand learn to communicate in order to socialise the

experience and be able to understand what the other

person wants. In this sense, it is noteworthy that

e-waste is used to teach how to create new devices in

the workshops.

8 www.crecoel.com

9 www.werbasa.com

10 iie.ng.edu.uy/ense/asign/progarte


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URUGUAY / 235

XO waste management and recycling: The Logis-

tics Department o Plan Ceibal, which belongs to the

Technological Laboratory o Uruguay (LATU),11 is cur-

rently working with Plateran S.A. a logistical services

company to deal with the problems that arise rom

recycling the XO laptops. Among other things, the de-

partment is analysing the amount o e-waste that is

being generated and will be generated in the uture asa result o the children damaging them. The intention is

to reuse all usable parts in the repair o the laptops, and

increase the stock o spare parts through dismantling.

In this way, the initiative aims to minimise uture pur-

chases o new spare parts.

Other recycling programmes: Although still at an in-

ormal level, new recycling initiatives have started. For

instance, the cooperative Reciclo PC, which is similar to

Crecoel, is currently taking its rst steps towards train-

ing its workers, as well as improving the quality o the

recycling process. The problem aced by this coopera-tive is the lack o a xed and secure place to develop its

activities.

Acti stes

It is a priority to create awareness o e-waste at an

institutional level, whether through the media or

through ormal education institutions, especially pri-

mary schools. We must remember that the recycling

and treatment o technological waste in Uruguay, even

though it has become more important over the last

years, is still a new problem. It is necessary to encourage political will to approve the

bill that deals with e-waste, as well as to provide support

or waste separation, especially or small initiatives and

social organisations. These initiatives oten nd it very

dicult at rst to cover expenses such as rent and tools

to carry out the waste separation work in optimal health

conditions.

11 latu21.latu.org.uy/es

Re-educating and motivating consumers regarding

e-waste is essential when it comes to shared respon-

sibilities. Even though this is not a major problem in

Uruguay yet (since beore throwing away an obsolete

device in general people try to resell or donate it), ICT

users must be aware o the act that they are a part o the

recycling process. As a consequence, policies aiming

to improve the relations between businesses and nalusers o technology should be implemented, as well as

generating synergies that motivate users to recycle.

Finally, we think that i it is possible to plan or the up-

dating o access inrastructure through the Digital

Agenda o Uruguay, developed by the e-Government

Agency or the Inormation and Knowledge Society12

(AGESIC) it should also be possible to include an

e-waste management plan in this process or discarded

technology. n

12 www.agesic.gub.uy

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Medio Ambiente Tic y Uruguay-GSW 2010