TAISM finds eco-friendly way to dispose of e-waste

Times of Oman, April 25, 2012

What do you do with an old computer or TV? Some might say simply throw it away, but this can cause a lot of environmental damage, so at The American International School of Muscat (TAISM) e-waste is being sent away for careful recycling and disposal.

Douglas Irish, the Information Technology Coordinator at TAISM, said that for years the old computer equipment had been accumulating at TAISM. There isn’t a local company that recycles and safely disposes of electronic waste, and the school didn’t want to just throw it away.

Electronics contain a lot of heavy metals, such as mercury, which are bad for the environment and people, if they are exposed to them, Irish explained. They can also leech into the drinking water, he added.

“We didn’t want it to go anywhere in the world where the chances were high that it would be put into a garbage dump,” Irish said. Irish said that TAISM’s director, Kevin Schafer, felt that it was the school’s responsibility to remove the electronic waste in a safe way, rather than contaminating Oman so encouraged Irish to find a company, even outside of Oman, that would take their old monitors, keyboards and other computer parts.

Irish found a British company, TES-AMM, with a partner in the UAE, Enviroserve, which provides services such environmentally-friendly electronic waste disposal. The electronic waste is carefully disassembled and some parts would be reused or recycled, such as the plastics, eliminating as much waste as possible, and then the rest, like the heavy metals and circuit-boards, is sent to Singapore. The waste was loaded onto trucks and sent from Muscat to Dubai, where the environmentally-friendly disposal process began.

“I’m happy it’s Singapore because we know the standards are high. Singapore has strict rules,” Irish said.

Oman Environmental Services Holding Company has plans to build a nation-wide hazardous waste management system, but until it becomes a reality, TAISM will continue sending its electronic waste abroad so it doesn’t contribute more pollution unnecessarily.

Irish said it’s also important for students to know about careful procedures for disposing of electronics. The school’s mission statement states that it should develop “ethical, responsible, and globally conscious life-long learners,” and one way to fulfill this area is to make students aware of the school’s environmental impact, he said.

“We always promote with the students that we we’re trying to be environmentally-conscious,” said Irish. “We’re always looking for ways to reduce our impact on the environment.”