Enviroserve is a local recycling facility that is trying to solve the e-waste problem in Kuwait. E-waste or electronic waste is basically discarded electrical appliances and devices which the majority of people generally throw out with regular garbage. Some examples of e-waste are laptops, computers, tablets, phones, refrigerators, IT equipment, lighting, and air conditioners. Enviroserve takes your e-waste and recycles them for you in an eco-friendly manner.
There are two ways you can dispose of your e-waste:
Drop off: Enviroserve have a bin at the Scientific Center (inside next to Starbucks) that can be used to drop off small appliances and devices
Pick up: They can pick up your e-waste but they charge a fee. If your e-waste fits in a small car the cost is KD5, if your e-waste requires a large car the cost is KD10.
If you’re a company and are getting rid of your old computers, they also have a data protection service where they secure the picked up hardware until all the hard drives are destroyed along with any confidential information that might have still been on the drives.
If you want to find out more about Enviroserve or if you want to request a collection, here is the link to their website.
26 replies on “Electronic Waste Recycling”
If they think that ill pay them to take my stuff even though they are already making a profit selling the components of the recycled devices then they are crazy. Im not wasting my time going somewhere im not used to going or fucking paying them 10 KD! They are basically asking me to fill their tank. I much prefer throwing it in the bin, which is free, and if they genuinely cared about the environment they’d make it a free service but like most eco friendly businesses in Kuwait this is aimed at the upper class who want a warm fuzzy feeling, a feeling which tbh i don’t give a shit about.
I think your whole comment made zero sense. Firstly they are offering you a free service, there is a bin at Scientific Center which you can drop your stuff into for free. You can’t expect them to come take your fridge for free, even your harrass is going to want 10KD to take it off you to throw away. Recycling costs these companies money, they have staff they need to pay, warehouses they pay rent for, cars, trucks, and lots of machinery they need to purchase. So even if it costs them money they aren’t charging you to recycle your stuff, if they make the money back selling the recycled material then great, they’re passing the recycling cost off to someone else.
Baladiya takes it for free and so do the stores like xcite, we just tell them we want our goods picked up while we are buying the replacement. mark they are recycling which literally makes them a shit ton of money on its own, electronics have a huge amount of precious materials. They are straight up being stingy when in the west you are paid to recycle your electrical goods and in the west they pay proper salaries not the 100kd here. Just type it down in google and you’ll see that they pay you to give them your electronics hell the electrical shop next to my uni bought my ink cartridges for £2 each and gave me £20 for my old printer, to be recycled (printer was recycled but the cartridges were resold). They arent making it worth one’s while to recycle.
Just to correct some of your incorrect points:
– Baladiya does NOT come to your house and take your fridge for free
– Xcite do NOT come to your house and take your fridge for free. They actually charge 15KD to remove your old appliance when installing your new one
– You say recycling makes them a ton of money, but you’re stating that with zero data, no numbers or any kinda or any knowledge on what their costs are. You used UK as an example, we aren’t in the UK, you can’t compare a recycling facility in a country with 4million people none of which recycle with a country with 66million people who mostly recycle.
When did cookie boi ever made sense lol
True I worked on a project with OMNIYA, they have multiple pickup locations around Kuwait and The ladies running it have a crazy amount of time trying to even break even, which i assume they havent yet. Their story must be heard.
@mark, do check them out too if you havent.
Just to clarify the point of this argument
I never once give out any of my home electronic waste for free
I just have to call any of the electronic waste buyers on the pape
r and thy come and give their price and pick it up ..
Never pay someone in order to come and take any item unless its useless or has no value at all or if its very large that won’t fit any normal sized pickup other than that there are some people buying wastes and reselling it for a profit and this job does exist so no surprise here !!
could u please recommend me you electronic waste buyers? I have 50 inch Toshiba tv which isn’t working.
Correction i got £12 for the printer.
Great attitude – that’s why there’s little hope – so long as I’m ok, leave it for someone else to deal with….
I’m not really sure the initial -informative- post warranted a response including swearing either!
+1
Recycling has also an associated cost to transport and to keep a recycling company functioning there has to be some funds.In some countries there is some levy related to recycling which is collected from people… yet in many scenarios like in the US there are now less takers countries for the recycled materials due to the current political environment and recycling companies are facing multiple challenges…..etc… if you as a person as in many ..and have something to dispose with less impact on the environment you could consider such services… you can just dump waste anywhere as there are EPA laws etc in kwt too.
First of all, thanks mark for the great post, the exposure is much appreciated
Second of all, you’re answer is 100% on point.
There seems to be some confusion to some, not all, what the recycling industry entails. This unfortunately is causing the issue in kuwait. A simple google of “country with highest waste per capita” will highlight the extent of the problem.
Some people confuse recycling with non profit or charitable contributions. Recycling is a service, similar to municipal trash collections, i operate a facility that minimizes the impact of a specific waste category, in our case electronics. This does not at all guarantee profit or incredible margins. There are cases where make a profit on some categories, but more often than not, the cost that goes into the process is calculated at breakeven in the best case scenario.
We have a complete production line that downsizes and segregates the waste, which consumes an immense amount of electricity, as well as requiring a big enough location (pictured above) to house the whole thing.
We are not scrappers, trying to pawn of electronics, fix them, or resell them, we simply convert them to raw materials.
A washing machine for instance is 30-40% concrete, most people don’t know that. Couple with a few kgs of steel and grams of copper. In raw material terms, these bring in 1-2 kd at best.
The old school mentality was that electronics last forever, and there may have been days where they did. The truth of the matter is, that today, companies build in an obsolescence to get you to replace your electronics, rendering the old ones useless.
On a side note:
If you have the time and knowledge to reduce, reuse, then recycle, all of the above are part of the same equation. We’re happy to know that you can go fix then resell some electronics. Unfortunately, the majority of what we work on cannot be salvaged.
Thanks once again 🙂
Don’t forget two more R’s – repair (not just electronics or heavy things – sew that button back on, replace the zipper on a purse, add another screw to hold something tight) and repurpose (I repurpose loads of water bottles, tissue boxes, empty boxes, packaging materials, and anything I can creatively craft with for my preschoolers)!
This is a good initiative. But a bin inside the scientific center? That seems quite an unreasonable spot. Some place easily accessible would be nice.
Yeah, why not have these bins in electronic stores or supermarkets? Also, there aren’t bins for used light bulbs and batteries that I know of.
Don’t think it’s up to them. Scientific Center are the kind of people to support a recycling initiative but I doubt sultan center or Xcite want a pile of old electronics in their stores.
That’s interesting, since every Best Buy in the States has that. I guess you have to really dress it up so people don’t think it’s a trash bin…
Great idea. I would love to know where to responsibly get rid of bulbs and batteries.
People all over the world pay for their garbage and recycling to be picked up – generally in property taxes. We pay no taxes here, so I have not problem paying every now and then for a load of recycling. Even in my area of the US, disposal of large items (washer, dryer, stove, etc) you pay separately for that anyway, as it is not even included in the regular recycling fees in your taxes.
I myself am happy to see this service.
It’s a good initiative by Waleed Esbaitah. But, I have to agree with Sulaiman-COGNAC. I am neither going to go pay for someone to come and take my old electronic goods nor go out of the way to drop stuff off. Don’t get me wrong, I circumvent this by selling off most electronic goods after a few years of use. In a country like this, to promote recycling, people(vast majority) have to feel like they are being rewarded otherwise they won’t bother doing it.
Sure…just like any five-year-old. Gotta reward people for doing the right thing. Maybe, just like a five year old closing the toilet lid, they can give out gold star stickers, and if you collect ten, you get a Happy Meal or a 5KD card at Fantasy World.
Based on how people drive here, I guess they’re not being rewarded for staying in their lane or not using their cell phone. I like your idea!
Recycling electronics and their accessories have huge variations in cost and simplicity depending on the object being recycled.
I don’t mind the fees, I feel like its an investment and the return is a better future.
Now I just need someone to define to me the amount “fits in a small car” 🙂
This is great, as I have tons of old lithium batteries I’ve been trying to get rid of
But isn’t there anywhere else I can get rid of just batteries?
Some of the comments show a complete disregard for the environment and personal responsibility for our part in it . People will drive across town for a cool restaurant or the newest sneakers but not separate their recycling and box some and put it in the car until they’re in that part of town to drop off. Not to mention how recycling businesses operate – expecting to be paid ! Speechless I am
Materialistic existence, what do you expect? When everything you do is a service, and you pay for all kind of trivial matters that what happens. You expect to be rewarded for a good deed. And honestly, what would you expect of a sociopath like him?