Most dead electronics in Harare end up in a drawer, in the household bin or on a rubbish fire. The drawer is the least harmful of the three. Phones, laptops and batteries contain metals worth recovering and chemicals that do real damage when burned or buried. Zimbabwe produces an estimated 10,000 tonnes of e-waste a year, ZIMBUZZ reported in February, and no law yet requires anyone to collect it.
There is no council e-waste collection. A handful of Harare companies will still take your old devices, and some will pay for them. Here is who takes what.
Small items: phones, chargers, tablets, laptops
Drop-off bins. According to Liquid Home's website, it runs an e-waste programme with EnviroServe and Econet, endorsed by the Environmental Management Agency. Collection bins for small items like old phones, laptops, chargers and tablets are kept at selected Liquid Home and Econet payment points in Harare. The page doesn't list which branches, so ask at your nearest one before making a special trip.
EnviroServe Zimbabwe, Msasa. You can also take small items straight to the source (see below).
Bigger items: desktop computers, monitors, printers
EnviroServe Zimbabwe runs an EMA-licensed facility at 184B Mutare Road, Msasa. Liquid Home's programme page says EnviroServe accepts e-waste delivered to the Msasa site free of charge, or will collect from your premises with its "Green Truck" for a fee. Once collected, the e-waste is sorted in Harare. The motherboards, plastics and more toxic parts are shipped to EnviroServe's recycling plant in Dubai, and the scrap metal goes to local recyclers. Data wiping and destruction are available on request.
Selling e-waste rather than giving it away
Some recyclers buy e-waste, especially circuit boards, processors and memory, which contain precious metals.
- Rabo Metal, Msasa, processes circuit boards, processors, RAM, phones, computers and copper scrap for export. It says it serves the public as well as small businesses and large companies.
- Etero Metal, Citroen Road, recycles circuit boards and e-waste for commercial and industrial clients, with collection, sorting and shredding. It shares a phone number with Rabo Metal, so the two may be linked.
Prices for scrap electronics change with metal prices, so phone ahead and ask what they're paying and what condition they want items in.
Businesses clearing out IT equipment
If you're replacing a batch of office computers, you need someone who will deal with the data as well as the hardware.
- Alexis Solutions offers e-waste collection, certified destruction, refurbishment and resale, and dismantling.
- Exit Computer Systems, Strathaven, offers IT asset recycling alongside repairs and refurbished computers.
- EnviroServe offers data wiping and destruction on request, and says it can issue a certificate confirming the equipment was recycled.
Ask for written confirmation of what happened to the equipment and the data on it. Your auditors may want it.
Batteries
Batteries are the most dangerous item on this list. Never burn them, and don't put lithium batteries in a bin where they can be crushed.
- Car batteries (lead-acid): Chloride Zimbabwe, 2 Newcastle Road, Workington, collects and recycles used car batteries. Its BinGo listing says this happens through its distributors around the country, so the shop selling you a new battery may take the old one.
- Phone and laptop batteries (lithium-ion): these can go with the device to the drop-off bins or to EnviroServe. In Bulawayo, Relithia Energy is listed as a lithium-ion battery recycler. It's an early-stage company we haven't verified yet, so call first.
- Solar batteries: ask your installer or supplier what they do with old units before you buy a replacement.
Before you hand a device over
1. Back up photos, contacts and documents. 2. Sign out of your Google, Apple, WhatsApp and banking accounts. A locked device is worth less to a refurbisher, and leaving your accounts on it is a risk to you. 3. Factory reset the phone or wipe the laptop's drive. 4. Take out the SIM card and any memory card. 5. If the device is broken and you can't wipe it, ask the recycler for data destruction.
Repair first
A working phone is worth more than a recycled one. Before you get rid of something, check whether a cheap repair or a new battery would fix it. Exit Computer Systems does computer repairs. Zambezi Ark Technologies runs a "Circular Shop" that repairs and refurbishes devices, though we haven't found contact details for it yet. Passing a working device on to a family member counts too.
Call before you go
Several of these listings are still marked unverified on BinGo, and no Harare e-waste service publishes opening hours or prices we could confirm. A quick call saves a wasted trip. If you find that a number is wrong, or you know an e-waste collector we've missed, tell us and we'll update the directory.
See every e-waste recycler in Harare and the full e-waste directory.
Sources
- E-Waste, Liquid Home Zimbabwe
- Sustainable Solar E-Waste Management Comes Under Spotlight in Zimbabwe, ZIMBUZZ
- Chloride Zimbabwe, Pindula
- Rabo Metal
- Etero Metal
- Alexis Solutions
- Exit Computer Systems
Written by Rufaro
Plain-language guides to getting rid of anything in Zimbabwe, properly.
