Importance of Recycling Condemned Electrical Appliances
Some Nigerians due throw away their household electrical appliance immediately after a fault are detected without regard to the negative effect of their action.
Though throwing it away at a dumpsite may not be bad as compared to throwing it inside water, dogged holes, etc. the important thing is to ensure that anywhere it is thrown that the recyclers could see them and pit them up for recycling.
The need for recycling in Nigeria is very important to the growth of engineering companies in the country.
Many of our household electrical appliances such as refrigerators, air conditioning, cd/DVD/VCD sets, televisions, ceiling fans, standing fans, wall fans, microwaves, electric cookers, water boilers, and rechargeable lanterns, phones, computers, decoders, and radios, etc.
These appliances have a lot of values which some people do not know about. The components used in the making of some of them can be loosed and be transformed to another different use in another product.
The truth is that when these appliances get damaged it is not the whole of its parts that got damaged rather it is the parts that allow the major function of the appliance to occur.
And the remaining parts can be used for other purposes, for example, a damaged electric cooking stove can have the light indicator on it removed and used for another purpose such public electric power supply indicator, and the body made of iron can be recycled for a foundry industry for making of industrial tools.
Considering a damaged television, the screen may still be in a good condition which can be used by local manufacturers to create another locally made television with the combination of several other parts of recycled parts of televisions.
Therefore before throwing away any of your damaged electrical appliances think f the following benefits of keeping them for the recyclers to come and pick;
THEY CAN BE REBUILT INTO ANOTHER PRODUCT
Consider the fact that some of the appliances can be converted to other useful products by our local manufacturers mainly located at Onitsha, Aba, Lagos, and other places in the country they have the ability to pick out the parts and select the ones that are relevant to the new product they are to form.
Like in the case of electric cookers if the burners are still good, they can be used to manufacture another cooking stove by simply molding a new body into it and using indicator lights from other appliances for it.
THE PARTS ARE PUT TO OTHER USE
The parts that may have actually been damaged can still be put to another use, like repairing and selling of those parts like in the case of computer motherboards, phone panels, fan motors, etc.
THE PLASTIC AND FOUNDRY INDUSTRIES NEED THE PLASTIC AND METALLIC PARTS
This is the most important part, it is always cheaper for the plastic industries to buy recycled plastics from the suppliers than to buy a flesh raw material for their products, and the recycled plastics need processing to be remolded into a new product.
Therefore, for this reason, they need recycled plastics, note that most of the electrical appliance that has to do with the heat was made with thermoset a type of plastic that cannot be remolded.
Hence their recycling may not be for plastic industries rather they go to technicians for future parts replacement.
While the foundry industries need the metallic parts of those appliances like bodies of refrigerators, air conditioners, etc. for either pressing or forging work or as scrap for the molding of new metals.
IT REDUCES IMPORTATION
The whole of these activities will cause a drastic fall in the number of imported electrical appliances since it would help our technicians and local manufacturers to grow.
The possibility of people patronizing these local parts assembled products more than the imported due to their cheap prices is high.
The plastic and metal melting industries could reduce the number of raw materials needed from their importers.
IT IS A SOURCE OF INCOME FOR THE DEALERS
Many young youths and men between the ages of 25 years to 40 years are recyclers in Nigeria, they earn their daily living from it.
They mostly achieve their target of gathering large quantiles of the appliances by using either wheelbarrow or two-wheel truck to move along the streets and dumpsites in search of these appliances until a substantial quantity of them has been obtained.
IT REDUCES ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION
Plastics are non-biodegradable materials, therefore when you do not recycle them; they would remain like that either beneath the soil or within the environment, and burning them is not also safe.
Therefore recycling them is just the best option to avert the environmental pollutions that do follow their inability to dissolve in the soil or water.
Throwing metallic material inside water can cause the water to start having additions of iron ions into it which could alter the chemical composition of the water over a long period of time.
