MINING AND EXTRACTION
"We are struggling to survive": Resistance to mining in Acacoyagua, Chiapas
Written by: Jes Ciacci (Sursiendo)
Full text of this case study is available on our blog in English and Spanish.
In 2015, members of the local communities of Acacoyagua, Chiapas, Mexico created the peaceful citizens’ movement Frente Popular en Defensa del Soconusco (FPDS) in response to growing health and environmental impacts of mining and exploitation of gold, silver, lead, zinc, iron and titanium. Digital devices contain many of these minerals.
As of September 2019, the Ministry of Economy of Mexico has registered 140 open pit mines in Chiapas, with permits until 2060. A small mine consumes around 250,000 litres of water per hour while a large mine uses between one and three million litres per hour.
The first permits in Acacoyagua, Chiapas date back to 2012, although some members of the community in Acacoyagua remember noticing the arrival of mining companies as early as 2006. By 2015, rates of cancer, particularly liver cancer, became the leading cause of death in locality.
The most serious environmental consequence of the mining for the people of the region has been the contamination of the Cacaluta River, which provides water to the aquifiers and supplies water to the homes of Acacoyagua Municipality.
Fish began to die. Local communities could no longer feed on the mojarras, pygmy lobsters and sardines they once fished. Thus began the process of defending the territory, which today not only implies having declared the municipality free of mining but also questioning other forms of overexploitation of the territory, such as the existing agribusinesses in the area.
In an article published by Mongabay magazine, a delegate of the Secretary of the Environment (SEMARNAT) in Chiapas, Amado Ríos, indicates that the agency assumes that the Casas Viejas mine does not pollute because the minerals are not processed on-site.
The population of Acacoyagua experience in their own bodies the effects of the mining. Despite the social strength and knowledge about mining that have been acquired throughout their organisational process, to date it is still difficult to track down the investing companies involved. The state and national governments, in their different bodies, give each other the responsibility of having to provide reports. The result is a lack of data.
There is also no explanation as to why mining projects are allowed in nature reserve sites. The aforementioned article states that for the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness, "the files of each concession can only be consulted by those who can prove their legal interest or through the General Law of Transparency and Access to Public Information."
The towns of Escuintla and Acacoyagua were the first to organise to resist the mining. Once the FPDS was formed, they joined the Mexican Network of People Affected by Mining (REMA) and since then have established different strategies for the defence of the territory, from direct actions, such as roadblocks, to information processes, assembly declarations and media and legal actions. Local public authorities and private security of the mining companies retaliated quickly, aiming to stop the social mobilisation. However, as one community member involved in the mobilisation stated, “We are defending our territory so that our children can continue to live as happily as we have in these places.”
In 2018 the communities lifted the roadblocks but maintain an active surveillance system in which people from the communities make their rounds on bicycles, and if they find a mining truck they immediately alert the other populations who come out to stop it.
A combination of strategies has made it possible to defend against mining. "People are happy now because they did see a very drastic change. We have a photo from 2019 with some river prawns from a meal they had in the mountains to welcome a journalist. People are beginning to see much more life in the river” (L. Díaz Vera, personal communication, 23 September 2020).
There are two fundamental dates for Acacoyagua that reaffirm the struggle. Every 20 June, on the anniversary of the organisational process, the community sings, performs dances, reads poetry, and makes announcements. In December, a large gathering is held in homage to the resistance with food, marimbas, raffles and a piñata.
Land and territory defenders in Latin America have a long history of implementing strategies to care for their lives and environments. The struggles have taken place in various dimensions but, as the story of Acacoyagua tells us, what has worked for them to stop the contamination has been a strong organisational process and non-violent direct actions.
In order to build future technologies that respond to the care of life, it is necessary to reconnect with other local, nearby consumption models that encourage diversity and connection with the people who produce them, that listen to the cycles of life (nature takes millions of years to produce minerals or oil), and designs that respond to these premises.
These other forms of development that respect the needs of local communities will also allow us to think of ways to relocate technologies, their production and circulation, to advance on open models of software and hardware development, to reduce consumption and diversify it, responding to localised problems and adding up to proposals based on care towards populations, communities and environments. Perhaps this is the technological development that would allow us to see a desired impact on the worlds we inhabit.
SMaRT innovation for urban mining
Written by Syed Kazi (Digital Empowerment Foundation)
Founded in 2008, the Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology (SMaRT) at the University of New South Wales in Australia is conceptualising new ways to process complex waste.
Thermal micronising uses gases generated from the waste plastics within complex waste streams such as e-waste. The microfactory on the university’s campus has been producing plastic filaments for 3D printing extracted from electronic waste.
DESIGN AND MANUFACTURING
Fairphone
Written by Leandro Navarro (UPC and Pangea)
Fairphone was founded with the intention to develop a mobile device that does not contain conflict minerals (which in smartphones are typically gold, tin, tantalum and tungsten), has fair labour conditions for the workforce along the supply chain, and can be repaired and upgraded to help people to use their phone longer.
As of 2020, the social enterprise has released three generations of the Fairphone, with more than 100,000 users. A special focus is the modular design of the device, which allows for easier repair. Fairphone 2 was the first smartphone to get a 10/10 score by iFixit for repairability. Across the different phases analysed in a life cycle assessment of Fairphone 3, the climate change impact, as measured by the global warming potential (GWP) of each phone, is estimated to be 39.5 kg CO2e.
Fairphone estimates that there is an average of 38 different materials in a smartphone, each with its own complex supply chain. Fairphone has a public map of first-tier assembly manufacturers and second-tier component suppliers.
Fairphone was the first smartphone company to incorporate fair trade gold in its supply chain, and over time the company is improving material sourcing, including more responsible mining practices, and increased use of recycled materials. The company estimates that approximately 32% of their eight “focus materials” have been sustainably sourced for the launch of Fairphone 3.
In 2018, Fairphone set up a pilot project with companies, asking them to pay a monthly fee for a package of phones, but the ownership remains in the hands of Fairphone and eventually the phones are returned to them.The intention behind maintaining ownership of the devices is to provide incentive to innovate design, and ensure that most resources are recoverable. The cost of the Fairphone 3 is more than USD 500 per device, indicating that more progress is needed for large-scale production of fairly produced and affordable devices.
PUBLIC PROCUREMENT
Electronics Watch
Written by Peter Pawlicki (Electronics Watch)
Electronics Watch is an independent monitoring organisation providing public buyers with capabilities to monitor their supply chains and verify their suppliers’ compliance with social criteria they have set in contracts for ICT hardware.
Public buyers, such as universities, hospitals, counties, cities and other public institutions, buy large volumes of computers, servers, smartphones and printers. Multi-year contracts with electronics brands enable public buyers to leverage this relationship to address workers’ rights and environmental concerns in their supply chains.
USE, REPAIR AND REUSE
eReuse.org
Written by Leandro Navarro (UPC and Pangea)
Disposed digital devices (computers, tablets, mobiles) are a resource for local social inclusion and participation. The vision of eReuse.org is that public and private organisations can act for the common good by donating disposed devices to social enterprises that repair, refurbish and distribute these devices to families – enabling them to participate in education and socioeconomic activities in their communities.
The “second-hand” market for digital devices creates employment and feeds a circular economy that improves local socioeconomic and environmental conditions.
The eReuse.org project essentially consists of four elements:
- Collect, repair and refurbish digital devices for reuse, ensuring final recycling.
- Bootstrap collaborative local circular economy ecosystems across all stakeholders in the reuse and recycling of digital devices.
- Trace, certify and measure circularity of products, members and platforms.
- Coordinate the development of open-source tools for reusing electronics.
eReuse.org makes agreements with public and private donors of digital devices, social enterprises and social inclusion programmes working in repair, refurbishment and recycling, and social organisations working with end-users.
The key features of the eReuse strategy are:
- Data collection about circularity of devices (chain of custody).
- Data aggregation and analysis of impact: social (hours of computing use created) and environmental (CO2e savings).
- Repair and refurbishment training.
- Dissemination of information based on the results of data collection and analysis, including raising awareness about the environmental impact of digital devices.
The eReuse.org project began in 2013, and in 2015 the computer donation campaign was launched. As of September 2020, approximately 10,000 computers had been processed and supported through 10 to 20 active social organisations in three regions: Barcelona, Madrid and Bilbao.
The impact of the project includes:
- Reduction of electronic waste and environmental impact of digital devices.
- Significant increase in access to digital devices in three regions.
- Creation of jobs in computer refurbishment.
- Development of tools for more efficient processing of digital devices.
- Collection of reliable data to promote circularity and to quantify and certify impacts.
Computadores para Educar – Colombia
Written by Julian Casasbuenas G. and Plácido Silva (Colnodo)
The Computadores para Educar (CPE) programme, formally established in 2000, is a public entity approved by the Colombian National Council for Economic and Social Policy. CPE began as a programme of the Colombian government for the donation of computers by public entities and private companies to public schools and colleges in the country.
When the CPE programme first started, the donated computers were remanufactured and sent to educational entities. This strategy changed, and currently CPE only delivers new computers and tablets. The equipment that was initially remanufactured has remained in educational entities for an average of five years of use.
Repair Café
Written by Leandro Navarro (UPC and Pangea)
The Repair Café is a non-profit organisation that began as an idea in 2007 to build skills to repair digital devices. There are now 2,000 Repair Cafés in more than 24 countries. In 2017, over 300,000 digital devices were repaired.
Repair Café recognises that in many countries we throw away items with almost nothing wrong with them because we do not have the skills to repair them. Repair Cafés aim to involve people with repair skills to share their knowledge, enabling digital devices to have longer lives instead of being thrown away.
“Enter the Circle of Solidarity!”: A multistakeholder environmental campaign aimed at bringing ICT equipment to disadvantaged communities in Romania
Written by Rozi Bako (Strawberrynet)
Lack of access to the internet and ICT infrastructure is a systemic problem in Romania. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, unequal access to digital education infrastructure has enormous consequences.
The 2020 ECOTIC campaign is distributing refurbished ICT equipment to specific communities in Romania where access to the internet is low – focusing on schools and NGOs. The campaign was launched in June 2020 and ran until October, and is part of a broader waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) awareness campaign by ECOTIC in partnership with the Romanian Ministry of Environment, Water and Forests.
Computer Aid Solar Learning Lab
Written by Alejandro Espinosa (Computer Aid)
The Solar Learning Lab (SLL) is a standard used shipping container converted into a classroom, with 11 computer workstations operating off of a thin-client network (a low consumption network with a server) and powered by a connected solar power system. The first SLL was established in the village of Matcha in Zambia in 2011. In partnership with Dell Technologies the project expanded to Colombia and South Africa in 2015, and to Kenya, Sierra Leone, Morocco and Mexico by 2019. In total, Computer Aid has set up 32 Solar Learning Labs.
A shipping container structure provides a secure and innovative space that can be relocated, where brick and mortar infrastructure may be more difficult. However, depending on the location and context, there can be high logistics and transport costs to set up a Solar Learning Lab. The Computer Aid model for the SLL relies on support from donors and companies to deliver infrastructure, reusing shipping containers, and training programmes.
Computer Aid has learned that local ownership required adapting design features of the lab to the specific context, and creating a space that is not just a computer room but a local hub for the community. In Mexico we launched a new double design to offer a dedicated space for robotics practices in addition to the computer lab and in between the two labs we created a space to accommodate more learners with laptops.
In November 2020, Computer Aid will partner with Zenzeleni community network in the Eastern Cape of South Africa to set up a Solar Learning Lab. Together, ComputerAid and Zenzeleni will carry out a documented learning process to understand how community networks and Solar Learning Labs can support each other to increase their positive impact and their sustainability.
Club de Reparadores
Written by Florencia Roveri (Nodo TAU)
Club de Reparadores is an initiative launched in Argentina in November 2015 by the organisation Artículo 41. The intention of the initiative is to raise awareness of repair as a sustainable practice of responsible consumption, inspired by movements developed in other countries.
Club de Reparadores aims to promote the repair of objects, to extend the useful life of things, claim the culture of repair, and promote knowledge and abilities involved in repairing and care and closeness as a social value.
RECYCLING AND MANAGEMENT OF ELECTRONIC WASTE
Computer e-waste management in Rosario, Argentina: From scarcity to excess
Written by Florencia Roveri (Nodo TAU)
In 2010, Nodo TAU started to develop an e-waste management plant, reducing environmental impact and offering work, social and digital inclusion. The challenges addressed were to recover and repair unused computers for reducing e-waste and devices kept unused in houses, institutions, private companies and government offices, while developing a sustainable enterprise with decent work conditions that offers job opportunities and providing devices to digitally excluded groups.
Nodo TAU is a civil association founded in 1995 by a group of engineers to work on the promotion of ICT for social – mainly grassroots – organisations, to address the digital divide. From 2003 to 2008, Nodo TAU developed a network of community telecentres together with the coordination of territorial organisations. Nodo TAU promoted the reception of discarded computers to be reconditioned in a “Bank of Machines” where they received the donations to be repaired.
Machines that cannot be repaired
Donations of used digital devices started slowly, coming from individuals and small companies. As time passed, the quantity of devices became unmanageable for the organisation, implying risks for people working in Nodo TAU and in the house shared with other organisations.
The problem became more evident when, in 2007, Nodo TAU received numerous donations of computers from a multinational agro-industrial corporation, which included modern notebooks that allowed the development of a mobile digital classroom (Aula Digital) for workshops in communities. The donation also included a large amount of machines that could not be repaired. Facing the problem of e-waste accumulation, Nodo TAU started to deepen its work on local circuits of recycling and to develop resources for addressing e-waste management.
An educational pilot project
In 2008, the Secretariat of Environment and Public Space invited Nodo TAU to join a project for the development of an e-waste recycling plant, together with Taller Ecologista, the main environmental organisation of the city, and the National Institute of Industrial Technologies (INTI).
As a result of this discussion, in 2009 Nodo TU developed an educational pilot project, consisting of the coordination of workshops on repairing computers with young people from poor neighbourhoods, together with the municipal Secretariats of Social Economy and of Environment in charge of the provision of the collected devices.
In 2012, the pilot project became an enterprise named “Reciclados Electrónicos”, promoted by the municipal government. Development of the plant was delayed due to internal conflicts in the municipal government.
In 2016, with support from APC, Nodo TAU developed a study of the local market and holders of e-waste treatment facilities, developing a business model for the functioning of the plant. This included collaboration with Barcelona-based APC member Pangea to implement the traceability system developed by the eReuse.org initiative. However due to internal conflicts in municipal government, the project of the plant was stopped.
New opportunities
Nodo TAU is now working with a close grassroots organisation, Grupo Obispo Angelelli, who invited Nodo TAU to join projects aimed at job inclusion for young people in the context of the provincial social programme Nueva Oportunidad (New Opportunity) in 2019.
In 2019, a provincial law was approved that regulated the management of e-waste, including extended responsibility and recognising the social repairers as a stakeholder. Furthermore, Nodo TAU has found an adequate place to install the plant that complies with all the formal requirements for functioning, and has started operations. A key factor in its implementation and sustainability was the inclusion of the plant in the Nueva Oportunidad programme.
In 2020, a new source of devices started to arrive at the plant: netbooks from the educational programme Conectar Igualdad, which distributed five million computers from 2010 to 2015 among students of public high schools. When the programme was discontinued, large amounts of computers were left unused, piled up in schools due to problems of poor maintenance. When the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools to lose and education turned to digital platforms, these unused computers became fundamental for students.
In September 2020, the provincial Ministry of Education signed an agreement with Nodo TAU for the repair and upgrade of computers, working in coordination with the authorities of each school.
E-waste and employment in the region
During 2019, Nodo TAU was invited by the ILO to participate in a research project about e-waste and employment in different countries of the region, starting with a pilot in Peru and Argentina. The project involved the reconstruction of the value chain, involving the organisation of local roundtables for discussion among relevant actors.
In 2020, the work with the ILO followed a second period dedicated to research on the management of electronic waste from the circular economy perspective. Research will be followed by capacity building in the field.
Sustaining and scaling electronic waste management
The sustainability of the project depends on the public programmes and policies in which it participates. With the support of the provincial government, the project offers scholarships for young people training and working in the plant, guaranteeing a stable income for them. The process is always evolving and allowing new scenarios, generating allies that strengthen the work, mainly in reference to the stability of workers involved in the plant.
More recently, coordination with the local office of the ILO to develop research work provides relationships with local companies, unions, municipal governments of the region and different areas of government, that also contributes to the growth, dissemination and potential replicability of the experience. This could be mentioned as a good practice of the experience. Scalability is being addressed as a key objective at this moment.
Karo Sambhav
Written by Syed Kazi (Digital Empowerment Foundation)
Karo Sambhav is a producer responsibility organisation (PRO), collaborating with enterprises in India to design and implement extended producer responsibility (EPR) programmes for electronic waste. Extended producer responsibility requires producers of digital devices to be made responsible for the full life cycle of that device, particularly at the end of its life. Karo Sambhav works with producers and manufacturing companies like Apple, Dell, HP, Lenovo and Toshiba to implement their EPR obligations.
Karo Sambhav focuses on raising awareness, building capacity and exchanging knowledge among the e-waste sector in India. The objective of this collaboration is to address critical gaps in the market and develop a locally relevant ecosystem for responsible collection and recycling of e-waste with the end goal of mobilising private sector investment towards the industry.
Karo Sambhav’s India E-waste Programme was launched in 2017 in partnership with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), which is part of the World Bank Group. As of October 2020, Karo Sambhav provides services across 29 states and three union territories of India. In the first two years of the programme, Karo Sambhav has successfully collected and sent over 6,000 metric tonnes of e-waste for responsible recycling.
Karo Sambhav’s school programme is important in implementing behaviour changes. The school programme was run in 40 cities across 29 states and two union territories. More than 1,500 schools participated in the programme in the 2017-2018 session.
Karo Sambhav’s e-waste programme has created channels with stakeholders across the value chain, including consumers, bulk consumers, waste pickers and aggregators. It is also working with retail and repair shops to help them build sustainable and legal ways to dispose electronic waste. Since 2017, Karo Sambhav has engaged more than 800 repair shops, 500 bulk consumers, 5000 waste collectors, and 600,000 individuals across India.
Sustaining and scaling electronic waste management
Karo Sambhav’s e-waste programme has proven to be sustainable in terms of bringing a circular approach of ICT. All five programmes of Karo Sambhav have yielded positive results and it has proved to be sustainable in terms of scalability and replicability.
The current biggest challenge for Karo Sambhav is that producers and recyclers are not fully convinced of the role of a producer responsibility organisation.
Informal markets for electronic waste also pose a challenge for Karo Sambhav, as they offer lower prices for e-waste collection and management.
Karo Sambhav programmes are present across India, and are contributing to a circular economy, starting from partnering with producers and engaging with recyclers. The aim of these partnerships is to enable an ecosystem for electronic waste recycling and management that is based on circular economy models and is sustainable at all levels.
Youth involvement in sustainable management of electronic waste in the DRC
Written by Patience Luyeye
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has no specific legislative framework for the management of electronic waste in the country. In this context, Benelux Afro Center (BAC), a non-profit organisation created in 1998, set up the first small-scale electronic waste collection and management services in Kinshasa in 2013.
In 2016, a project was funded for the collection of waste in the province of Kongo Central because of the large amount of waste that importers store around the port. E-waste is sent to a technical school in which students have been trained to recycle and manage electronic waste.
E-waste management stations were set up in Kisantu, Mbanza Ngungu, Matadi, Boma and Muanda, managed entirely by young people. This project made it possible to collect and treat 13,500 kg of WEEE in 2017, and give work to at least 10 young people at the various relay stations and three young people permanently at the Matadi workshop along with around 10 occasional day workers.