Page 8 from: Recycling International July issue | 2021 + TOP 100!

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‘Geeks of colour hope
to end recycling myths’
His work for the Peace Corps took US recycler

Robin Ingenthron to Cameroon in the 1980s.

It’s been over 30 years since he taught African

youngsters at secondary school but he’s

always kept them at the back of his mind. ‘I

asked myself: “How could they have a better

life? What jobs could help them make an hon-

est and decent living?” The answer was clear:

scrap.’ Recycling International sat down with

the founder of Fair Trade Recycling, based in

Vermont, to discuss the bigger picture of the

worldwide e-scrap recycling sector.

extend the life cycle instead of recy-
cling them prematurely?’

Are you optimistic About
where the e-scrAp sector is
todAy?
‘Not long ago, the media was buzzing
with phony statistics claiming “80% of
the world’s unrepairable e-waste gets
dumped in Africa”. Nonsense. It took
two decades, but people are finally
learning to see and appreciate the
graduates of Accra universities who
buy and import equipment for reuse
are completely separate from the slum
dwelling scrappers who collect such
devices years later after decades of
repair and maintenance. Meanwhile,
we are seeing less and less metal,
more and more glue, and falling pric-
es for new equipment. Products are
changing, opinions are changing. The
only certain thing is continuous radical
change and people’s drive for innova-
tion when challenged.’

cAn you describe whAt ‘the
world’s biggest e-wAste
dumping ground’ looks like
in reAl life?
‘If you are asking about
Agbogbloshie, a car scrapyard I’ve vis-
ited many times, the joke is that it is
not big at all. I swear to God, the local
transfer station in Middlebury,
Vermont (population 8 500) has more

how do you view the
lAtest technologicAl
innovAtions?
‘We have made major strides in the
use of recycling software, integrated
systems and artificial intelligence
(AI) to recover components and parts,
particularly from flat screen displays.
Our sales of replacement parts to
US electronics repair shops now
account for US$ 50 000 (EUR 42 000)
per month in revenue. The tech
sector in emerging markets has even
more need of these, and much older
parts, since they are required to repair
legacy products like cathode ray tube
TVs that people are still happy to use
over there. Simply put, the “old days”
of calling shredding devices “high
tech” are over. In fact, the growing
presence of lithium batteries makes

some shredding practices very dan-
gerous.’

whAt Are you currently
working on?
‘My company has opened a new “fair
trade” recycling facility in North Africa,
which is re-manufacturing flat screen
displays for reuse. We need a partner
in Europe to buy back clean disassem-
bled parts that are upgraded or
replaced. We are also excited to devel-
op a fair trade recycling offset pro-
gramme, based on carbon trading
models, to incentivise our partners to
collect one tonne of waste from their
local community every time they
import a tonne for refurbishment. It will
help African e-scrap reuse pioneers to
push scrap collections (including ocean
plastic) in their region to the next level.
We’re also developing an AI database
to link up electronics parts and people
in different parts of the world – but I
can’t reveal too much yet!’

how hAs the coronAvirus
impActed recyclers Across
AfricA?
‘The coronavirus had a devastating
impact on two of our most exciting
projects. We had just begun a pilot
programme to collect solar panels for
reuse in Ghana, based on the home of
one of our US technicians. He lives
completely off grid, getting all his elec-
tricity from salvaged solar panels. He
got his visa and was ready to go in
March 2020 but, unfortunately we have
had to delay sending him to Ghana
until further notice. An even worse
dilemma faces the North African refur-
bishing factory I am working with. The
national government ordered a lock-
down preventing employees from
returning to work but the landlord is

still charging rent. They are now losing
EUR 6 000 per month. That is a lot of
money for an African entrepreneur and
we will be devastated if it has to close.’

do you hAve A phrAse thAt
inspires you, both in
business And in life?
‘“Once you see people for what they
can do, rather than for what you think
they cannot do, the world gets bigger
and better”. The same is definitely
true for the circular economy. Sadly,
there are still some myths that prevent
us from seeing that.’

how do you meAn?
‘African, Asian and Latin American
recyclers all believe in the circular
economy. It’s our mindset that’s pos-
ing a problem. We’re still talking
about the circular economy from a
European-centric and North America-
centric point of view. We have to cor-
rect that and see the true potential of
a global closed loop.’

whAt do you think is the
biggest obstAcle towArds
recycling more e-scrAp?
‘Exporting e-scrap for the purpose of
repair and reuse should not be consid-
ered a crime. Our updated interpreta-
tion of the Basel Convention, follow-
ing headlines about “primitive” han-
dling in developing countries, puts
recyclers and traders of colour in a
very difficult position. I urge everyone
to search the internet for “televisions
per household in Ghana”. The IMF
and World Bank have been tracking
this statistic for decades. It will make
you wonder why there are so few TVs
in Ghana’s dumps. The short answer is
because Africans fix them and keep
them longer. Isn’t that better? To

Robin Ingenthron: ‘We’re still talking about the circular economy from a European-centric and North America-centric point of view.’

A U T H o R Kirstin Linnenkoper

08-09_qarobiningenthron.indd 8 06-07-21 14:02