Rwanda’s Electronic waste facility With the electronic waste facility, all old electronics ceases to be a problem for Rwandans. The recycling facility is expected to save the country from environmental hazards and create thousands of green jobs. In 2014, government invested Rwf1.1 billion (About $1.3 million) to establish the facility under its ‘National e-waste Management Strategy’ that seeks to establish Sustainable Recycling Industries. The project is conducted by the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MINICOM) and National Climate Change and Environment Fund (FONERWA) together with other supporting institutions. The overall objective of the project is to offer an “end –of-life” solution for electronic and electrical waste, allowing a sustainable use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in the country, by preventing a negative impact of electronic waste on the health or the environment once the equipment has reached its end-of life. According to officials at the National Climate Change and Environment Fund (FONERWA), under its $87 million financing, the fund is running about approved projects that have seen 123,406 Green jobs created, 15,090.97 hectares of land secured against erosion; 31,606.27 hectares of forest and agro-forest covered while 14,949 families have been connected to its off-grid clean energy, among others. With the plan to become an ICT hub which requires computers and other gadgets, Rwanda has so far imported tons of equipment thus disposing of these gadgets when they become old and irreparable can become a huge challenge but Apparently, your gadget can return to life and serve the young generations if you throw it in the a e-waste treatment plant. e-Waste Recycling Facility Program Manager Olivier Mubera explains how electronic waste is sorted Meanwhile, there are two ways of carrying the e-waste to the recycling plant. One can call the plant manager to come and collect gadgets or can decide to transport them to the plant. Institutions with e-waste stores make the collection easy. “We do not buy the waste. In normal circumstances, the person who has waste pays the cleaner to dispose them off,” Mubera told the reporting team. Once at the plant, the e-waste is segregated, a system which consists of grouping the waste into categories, and then tested to see the ones that are repairable. Those that are found repairable are kept aside while the rest is smashed. The new plant plans to set up electronic waste collection points in all 30 districts of the country. It has so far created over 200 green jobs Apart from recycling, the new e-waste facility has started refurbishing computers and distributing them in secondary schools to help students to grow their technology dreams. The plant has engaged in this initiative as part of its corporate responsibility besides its core business. So far, 400 computers, collected from stores in government institutions and Non-governmental organizations, have been refurbished and 200 of them have been distributed to 10 schools in districts neighboring the plant as part of the agreement with Rwanda Education Board (REB),” The computers will be able to aide schools lacking computers for students, teachers and the school administration,. Producer Audrey Essamuah Camera Mercy Wellington ---DECRYPTED---