On November 14, 2017, with the financial support of the OSCE Program Office in Bishkek, a meeting was held to discuss problems of electronic waste, which was attended by employees of the Transport and Economy Department of the Osh’s City Hall, representatives of the Regional Office of SIETS in Osh, “Tazalyk”, information technology centers, technology stores, repair shops, the OSCE Office in Bishkek and the Aarhus Center in Osh.

The meeting was opened by the Director of the Information Aarhus Center in Osh K. Isabaev. He informed the participants about the problems of electronic waste in the world and in Kyrgyzstan. He noted that 1.2 kg of electronic waste per capita in Kyrgyzstan, the issue of utilization and processing of these wastes has not been resolved. It is necessary to conduct work to inform residents of large and small towns on the management of these wastes.

The head of the Transport and Economy Department U. Ramanov noted the importance of this meeting and expressed readiness of the Mayor’s Office of Osh to help in solving this problem.

Representative of “Tazalyk” T. Kaparov said that the enterprise is ready to temporarily accept and store electronic waste at its base.

Director of LLC “Cascade-Osh LTD” Tsymbalyuk Y.  proposed of creatinon of school curriculum environmental education.

Director of the Information and Technical Center “Arsenal” A. Bazarov proposed to create an enterprise for sorting out electronic waste, receiving old computers and repairing them for secondary use.

Head of the Department of Ecology of the Regional Directorate of SIETS of Osh A.Mamyraimov acquainted the participants with the regulatory documents on industrial waste and offered cooperation.

During the meeting there were journalists who asked questions to the mayor’s office, municipal authorities and electronic service centers.

At the meeting the participants discussed the impact of electronic waste on the environment and possible ways of utilization. Population does not have enough information about the impact of waste on the environment.

In the process of discussion, suggestions were received from the participants:

• carrying out of explanatory works among the population about electronic wastes with participation of territorial councils;
• in the city schools conduct information campaigns on electronic waste;
• issues of the secondary use of electronic waste, to create an enterprise for sorting waste and repairing old equipment;
• lobbying the relevant structures on the preparation of the document for inclusion in the price of electro-goods, the price of recycling;
• conducting a survey on electronic waste issues;
• disseminate information through the media;
• carrying out of actions on informing about electronic waste;
• prepare a project proposal for the installation of urns near shops and service centers for electronic waste;
• Attract specialists for organizing trainings for residents, students and schoolchildren about electronic waste

This meeting was broadcast at 19:00, November 14, 2017 in the evening news of ORTRK “Yntymak.” The meeting was organized by the Information Aarhus Center in Osh together with the Regional Office of SIETS of Osh in the framework of the project “Strengthening Environmental Security in Kyrgyzstan through the Green Economy, Disaster Reduction and Implementation of the Aarhus Convention”, implemented with the support of the OSCE.

Specialist for work with the public Information Aarhus Center in Osh,

T. Zhumabekov