This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Osibanjo, O. Articles by Ogbonna, K.C. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Osibanjo, O. Articles by Ogbonna, K.C. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Modelling waste generation by the telecom sector in Nigeria: the grey side of the impressive outing

Basel Convention Regional Coordinating Center for Africa for Training & Technology Transfer, Department of Chemistry, University of Ibadan, Nigeria

I.C. Nnorom

Department of Industrial Chemistry, Abia State University, Nigeria, chidiabsu{at}yahoo.co.uk

K.C. Ogbonna

Department of Industrial Chemistry, Abia State University, Nigeria

Since the introduction of digital mobile technology into Nigeria in 2001, there has been a phenomenal improvement in mobile subscription, service delivery and in the overall penetration of mobile telecommunication into rural areas in the country. For instance, the country's teledensity increased from less than 1% in 2001 to about 25% in 2006 — an increase of more than 3000%. The aim of this paper is to predict improvements in telephone penetration and waste generation by the Nigerian telecommunications sector. This was achieved by regression analysis of available data on telephone subscription in the country. Our estimations indicate that an average of 3 million phones will be retired annually in the country. Considering an economic phone life of 4 years, the over 32 million phones, (weight estimated at about 3200 tons) in use in 2006 would be at their end-of-life (EoL) by 2010. This volume of waste may contain up to 1800 tons of waste plastics, 15 tons of lead and 124 tons of copper. Our derived regression equation also indicates that mobile phone penetration in the country would be about 40% by 2010. This implies that over 55 million mobile phones would be in use by 2010. The grey side of this impressive statistics is that waste generation by the telecommunications sector will also follow this trend. This paper also highlights the need to introduce a framework for the effective management of waste from this sector considering the toxicity of some of the components of mobile phones and accessories and the prevailing inappropriate disposal practices for such potentially `toxic' materials.

Key Words: Mobile telephone • Nigeria • forecasting • waste management • electronic waste • modelling • wmr 1278—9

Waste Management & Research, Vol. 26, No. 4, 317-326 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0734242X07085412


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?