Kenya’s electronics waste recyclers battle to contain rising scourge

Japhlet Kamau, a technician with the local NGO Electronic Waste Initiative Kenya (E-Wik), mends a mobile phone in his workshop as the NGO collects electronic wastes to be processed, recycled, and repurposed in an informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya. — AFP

NAIROBI: In an industrial Nairobi neighbourhood, impoverished slum-dwellers scour piles of garbage to collect damaged and discarded gadgets, part of an initiative to recycle old electronics and transform trash into treasure.

Wearing T-shirts and flip flops and earning as little as 500 Kenyan shillings (RM18.80) a day, the unlikely warriors are at the frontlines of a battle against a rapidly-growing environmental menace.