E-Terra Technologies (E-Terra) is a private eco-friendly waste management company that is addressing Nigeria’s electronic waste (or e-waste) crisis through innovative technology and an incentivized e-waste recycling initiative.
Its business model is based on merging environmental sustainability strategies with technological advancement.
The company was founded in 2014 out of a need to ensure that technological progress in Nigeria is sustainable for future generations. At inception, E-Terra’s operations began small-scale and primarily revolved around repairing damaged electronics. Today, it runs an administrative office at a central location in Yaba and a Material Recovery Facility (MRF) plant in Abule Ado. It has developed its core services to include e-waste collection and eco-friendly disposal, data destruction, IT asset decommissioning and refurbishing. Also, it has acquired licenses required to do all this locally. In 2017, E-Terra received its ISO certification on both 9001 and 14001 standards. This means that it is recognized internationally for the quality of its maintained standards, both as an existing business and as an environmentally responsible organization.
E-Terra prides itself on social entrepreneurship: by solving the social problem of accumulating e-waste and at the same time rewarding responsible e-waste management.
Responsible e-waste management is increasingly important because the increase in the production and use of electronics , unfortunately, means a growth in generated and accumulated e-waste, which leads to degradation of the environment. Technological devices have significantly improved our world, but as devices become obsolete due to consistent advancement in technology, or unwanted due to consumerism; old devices become hazardous e-waste with, disposal and data protection becoming a growing concern.
In Nigeria the burden of accommodating e-waste is fueled not only by locally generated e-waste but by the shipment of e-waste from developed countries to our local landfills which then serve as dumpsites. The volume of these dumpsites must be reduced and the usual treatment is to burn them in open fields, and this could release toxic cancer-causing carbon emissions (of mercury, lead, chromium and cadmium to name a few) into the air and larger ecosystem. Informal handlers hammering and chipping away at scrap electronics do so at the risk of their personal and environmental health.
In order to accelerate its e-waste collection and recycling processes, E-terra runs an incentivized model based on rewarding individuals and groups who gather e-waste with money and other prize rewards. It then treats gathered waste responsibly and safely at its Material Recovery Facility in Abule Ado.
Creating awareness on environmental hazards ranks highly on E-Terra’s engagement list. To this end, they run regular campaigns like jingles, commercials, BRT bus ads, billboards, and presentation workshops. They also host regular road shows where educative handbills are shared to engage residential communities. Also, they are currently planning a state-wide tour targeting students and communities.
Managing e-waste is a lot more cumbersome than general waste, both financially and operationally. Partly because the technology required for safe and secure recycling is costly: e-waste stored in hot temperatures leads to secretion of carbon emissions, insufficient power supply to cool stored e-waste leads to the constant use of generators which escalates running costs. Therefore, E-Terra, as a novel company pioneering new frontiers in the management of waste in Nigeria, hopes to attract corporate partnerships for its upcoming environmental campaigns.
E-Terra has the vision of being the leading eco-friendly, highly effective and profitable end-to-end electronic waste manager in West Africa by 2026, beginning from Nigeria. It also plans to help in raising a Green Generation that is knowledgeable about recycling and e-waste recycling processes and also proactive towards data security issues.
SustyVibes is glad to watch the company grow and to bring you their recycling story.
