With our growing appetite for electrical and electronic products, combined with rapid innovation and ever-shorter product lifespans, e-waste has now become one of the fast growing waste streams.
This course will help the participant to understand why and how we must manage e-waste in an environmentally sound manner and how we can take action on e-waste in their own life, business, or organization.
The aims of the course are to:
· Show how sound management of e-waste can help reduce GHG emissions, mitigate climate change and prevent hazards to health and the environment in accordance with the Basel, Rotterdam, and Stockholm Conventions
· Share best practices, technological innovations, and sustainable e-waste recovery and recycling business models
· Explore how the value in e-waste can be extracted in a way that supports the local economy and protects people’s health and the environment.
The five modules of The E-waste Challenge MOOC will enable students to:
· Appreciate the scale of the e-waste problem and the legal framework for managing e-waste in your geographical or professional context
· Recognize the environmental, health, and climate-related risks posed by e-waste, as well as the potential value of e-waste
· Explain, and apply, the principles and practice of environmentally sound management (ESM) of e-waste, and design sustainable solutions to reduce the quantity of products that become e-waste
· Develop a project proposal to address an e-waste problem or opportunity that demonstrates some positive impact on environment, health, and climate change
· Consider practical actions to take your learning from the MOOC into the real world and help to raise public awareness.
The E-waste Challenge MOOC will start in April 2016. We suggest you allow about eight weeks to work through the whole course but the timing is up to you, and the course will remain open to you once you are registered. There will be a second delivery of the MOOC later in the year. The next start date will be shown on the E-waste Challenge Information page when available.
There are two pathways that participants may follow:
· You enrol in the MOOC as an individual and study in your own time. You will be in charge of your own learning, although you will of course have the support of your peers.
· You enrol as part of a university course, in which case you may have a tutor who will support you and advise you of any additional work you may need to complete to meet the university requirements.
