The Kenya National Chambers of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI) Kisii County chairman Mr Benjamin Onkoba has called for decentralisation of electronic waste (e-waste) collection points to rural areas.
Onkoba observed that locating e-waste collection points in urban areas only will derail the collection and recycling of e-waste materials within the rural communities due to long distances covered while taking the waste to urban areas for weighing and disposal. He noted that there are also large volumes of e-waste in rural areas.
Speaking in Kisii town on Friday, Onkoba lamented that having area residents walk for long distances to take their e-waste for weighing in collection centres based in Kisii town or away from their homes will be economically unviable.
He noted that all the proceeds from the waste will end up being used for their transport.
"I am of the idea that after establishing an e-waste collection point at the Kisii University, let us decentralise the collection points to rural areas to afford local community members accessibility and convenience in collecting and delivering their waste for weighing and payments," observed Onkoba.
He commended the move to have an e-waste collection point at the Kisii University saying the project will be professionally run by the university administration since there are e-waste graduates in the institution who will be directly manning and overseeing the projects progress and sustainability.
He, however, challenged the county and national governments to embrace appropriate e-waste recycling technologies to replace and finally eliminate the traditional recycling practices to reduce exposure to hazardous substances at household and community levels.