The Internet Society of Zimbabwe is a brave institution. They are calling for something that will make them unpopular with many. The Internet Society, Zimbabwe Chapter is calling for an additional tax on all gadget imports – an electronic waste tax.
The rationale behind the call for the tax is solid. They argue that Africa is a dumping ground for electronic waste. How? We are importing too much second-hand equipment, so we are getting equipment close to its use-by-date.
This means as Africans, we have to bear the cost of disposing of said equipment. The same argument was made regarding cars, leading to a ban on 10-year-old cars.
We are buying this old equipment that has a few years of use, and yet we do not have the requisite recycling or disposal infrastructure to deal with it when the time comes. This leads to old gadgets filling up landfills.
This waste then contaminates our water bodies and underground water sources.
The West, where we get the equipment from gets to avoid this problem of e-waste, a little, with each ton of second-hand gadgets they ship to Africa.
What the Internet Society is calling for is an e-waste tax. It would be collected on the import of electronic gadgets, whether they are new or not.
They want it styled like carbon tax, where in Zimbabwe, motorists have to pay 3 cents for every litre of fuel they buy. Those funds are then used to counter the negative effects gasoline has on our environment.
With the e-waste tax, funds so collected will then be used to set up a recycling plant in Zimbabwe. Proper e-waste management centres. The cheap, second-hand equipment we buy will then end up there, and not in our water.
Good idea but…
To me, this all sounds good but I have concerns. Firstly, I am acutely aware of the power of the smartphone in particular. It opens so many doors for the underprivileged, giving them access to financial services amongst other things.
Now, any tax that adds to the cost of acquiring those gadgets would mean slowing the adoption of those gadgets. In the end, the e-waste tax would help widen the digital divide.
The same applies to other non-smartphone gadgets whose cost would increase with the tax. However low the increase in cost.
Then comes the worry that the funds collected will not even end up going towards a recycling plant. Our government does not have a good track record, we have seen too many government employees find ways to appropriate funds meant for public use.
The last of my worries is that it does not appear we actually have the means to collect e-waste to take to the recycling plant, even if it was built.
Right now we have PET bottles and pizza boxes strewn around our cities. City councils, EMA, the government, and whoever else is to blame, is not up to the task.
How then will the e-waste go to the recycling plant our tax money would have funded? I don’t know. There may be reforms but I’m not holding my breath.
The Internet Society announced that they are lobbying for this tax at the recently held Transform Africa Summit in Victoria Falls.
The Internet Society is aware of these challenges. They have been carrying out research on e-waste for some time and we shall find out exactly what they found in due time. For now, you can find out more on their thinking on this matter in the article linked below:
What do you think though? Would you be in support of such an e-waste tax? Would it have the desired impact? Let us know in the comments section below.
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