A Tunisian start-up company has been revolutionising the management system for e-waste

Sabri Cheriha is an engineer who became a social entrepreneur after he had worked on a washing machine at a small depot, which was located in a suburb of Tunisia’s capital. This place would soon become the home of start-up company, WeFix, which he would launch, with the intention of tackling the country’s quickly increasing electronic waste problem.

This company, WeFix, won Cheriha a second-place regional social entrepreneur award in 2024 as it stood out through offering an ‘all-in-one service’ which provides collection, repairs and finally, recycling in order to reduce e-waste.

Cheriha stated that the aim is to, ‘have an environmental and social impact, but also an economic gain.” He also said that, ‘refurbished products can be up to 60 percent cheaper in a country where the average monthly salary is around 1,000 dinars ($310).’

It is clear that the situation in Tunisia needs to change, as currently the country produces over 2.6 million tons of household waste and the annual volume of toxic waste within Tunisia has previously exceeded 6.5 million tonnes. Along with issues of waste being produced, there are also issues with landfill sites becoming expired and the health of communities being put at risk. Whilst the country has vowed to tackle waste in general, e-waste has become particularly challenging and there is a severe lack of institutional avenues for dealing with it.

Sabri stated that an estimated, ‘eight million household appliances and nine million cellphones are currently in use across Tunisia. Still, once these devices break down or are replaced, “there’s no service to dispose of them properly.”

A waste management expert, Walid Merdassi, commented, “Tunisia produces an estimated 140,000 tonnes of e-waste per year. The majority of that — an estimated 80,000 tonnes per year — is generated by households, which have no official recycling system to turn to.”

Walid spoke about how, ‘the government should require manufacturers and retailers to take back used machines, and encourage the 13 local companies specialised in recycling to extract and export valuable raw materials like gold, copper and platinum from the devices they process.’

Sabri says that, ‘In the meantime, WeFix is making strides at its own pace, reducing Tunisian e-waste by promoting the sale of refurbished appliances instead of buying new.’ Sabri says he, ‘eventually hopes to expand WeFix to Morocco, despite the challenges of scaling up nationally.’