Durban, South Africa, 9 July 2013
Introduction
At the kind invitation of the Department of Communications of South Africa [DOC], the International Telecommunication Union [ITU] organized a one-day workshop on “Environmentally Sound Management of E-waste” at the International Convention Centre in Durban, South Africa on 9 July 2013.
This workshop was preceded by a "Workshop on "Countering and Combating Spam" on 8 July 2013. A Joint ATU-ITU Seminar on the outcomes of the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA-12) and the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT-12) also took place from 10 to
11 July 2013. These events were hosted by the Department of Communications (DOC), South Africa, and took place at the same venue.
Objectives
The key objective of the workshop was to provide an overview of best practices on policies, regulations and international standards for improving e-waste management. The workshop discussed how WEEE has a negative impact on the environment and human health, but can also provide opportunities to create green jobs, curb health problems, cut greenhouse gas emissions as well as economic incentives for recovering valuable metals from redundant, excessive or end-of-life ICTs.
Target Audience
This workshop brought together leading specialists in the field, from top policy-makers to engineers, designers, planners, government officials, regulators, standards experts and others.