Abstract

Margaret W. Maimba, Peter M. Ngau, Fridah W. Mugo

With the advent of rapid development of electronic technology and change in lifestyles, the lifespan of computer components and accessories has greatly reduced resulting in increased generation of computer ewaste. This paper explores the level of public awareness of potential impacts of computer e-waste on human health and environmental degradation of the urban area in Nairobi City County. Structured questionnaires were administered to 44 public institutions, 30 private companies and 156 households; random sampling for households and private companies and purposive sampling for public institutions. Despite respondents considering computer e-waste in the urban environment as serious and the responses received examined for the content of environmental and or human health concerns, only few mentioned environmental (12.5%) and human health (8.3%) considerations. Most respondents do not know the proper computer e-waste disposal management approaches and hence the reason why they stored the e-waste in houses and offices and also threw it together with other county solid waste. The study concludes that there is low public awareness and insufficient knowledge on the negative effects of computer e-waste on human health and the environment. The study recommends use of several media to bring public awareness of potential effects of computer e-waste on human health and the environment. The research recommends establishment of a county computer e-waste authority whose mandate is to implement a zero-e-waste policy. Emphasis should be on household’s e-waste drop-off points, county computer e-waste recycling centre and wards community capacity building to absorb the spinoffs from the county computer e-waste recycling centre