Theevan Padma, who owns TM Recycle IT Sdn Bhd, said Malaysians do not know what to do with their old gadgets although they could be refurbished.
“Some think it is all right to send their old gadgets to scrap metal operators or just throw them in garbage bins,” he said. “But just throwing them away without managing their electronic components properly is wrong,” he told FMT.
He said scrap metal operators or recycling centres are only licensed to manage household waste like plastic, paper and aluminium.
Theevan said a three-year-old laptop computer with a decent processor could be refurbished and used again. “If the owners do not want their gadgets or items any more, sell them to me,” he said. “I can give the unwanted items a second chance of life.”
Theevan, who has been running the company for over 10 years in Port Klang, said electronic items that are not carefully discarded might bring adverse effects to the environment.
“Electronic items are not biodegradable, unlike food and plant. They cannot be absorbed into the soil,” he said. Circuit boards, commonly known as “motherboards” in computers, usually contain lead and mercury.
“When people throw away their computers with general waste, this exposes the items to rainwater. The chemicals on the ‘motherboards’ will then be absorbed into the soil, thus making it polluted and you cannot plant anything on the land,” he said.
He said when he started working in the IT services industry about 17 years ago, he foresaw that computers and other household items would be thrown away in big numbers every day.
“Back then electronic items or gadgets were expensive and no one changed them regularly. We would try to fix them until we could no longer do so,” he said.
“As technology advanced, we can now afford more than one personal computer at home at a lower price compared with the late 1990s and early 2000s,” he said.
‘Dirty job’ of collecting old scrap
Theevan said many IT graduates had in the early 2000s equated the e-waste industry with “dirty” work and felt discouraged from entering the business.
“They want comfortable jobs in software programming or information systems with corporate companies,” he said. “But I do not see e-waste as a ‘dirty job’. It is a job that helps me to reduce the harmful impact on our environment.”
Theevan also said he hoped the local market for refurbished items would expand in the next five years.
“A student from a poor family can get our (refurbished) laptop with a decent processor for less than RM2,000. This price tag will not burden her family,” he said.
“Others can buy our refurbished computers and donate them to orphanages or welfare homes so that the children there can get a chance to learn,” he added.