With so much mudslinging and rejoinder on display among the nation’s leaders, it was refreshing to read in Monday’s edition of a youngster getting the real work done amid the din.

The report was of Campion College sixth-former Mr Dirk Harrison advancing a solution to a growing problem in these times — the management of e-waste.

His mission: ‘Erase your E-waste’.

The dynamism of the Digital Revolution and innovations in science and technology — many with short life cycles — have given rise to a new challenge in this millennium.

Mr Harrison told the Jamaica Observer that he noticed the ignorance in proper disposal of e-waste among his peers and wanted to play a part in mitigating the ill effects.

Now the impact of this decision has the potential to create ripple effects that can well change the trajectory of consciousness within his school community, among his peers, and truly across the nation and region.

Such is the substance of applied learning.

“I saw that the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) had started an initiative. It was an article dated August 2022 and I just read up more about it and I thought it would be a good way to help it gain publicity…” the 17-year-old shared at the launch of the initiative at his school last Friday.

The NSWMA launched its electronic waste campaign in 2022, encouraging citizens to drop off their old and unwanted devices at any of its regional offices islandwide.

Once collected, the devices are handed over to Inet Jamaica, a local lithium, lead battery, and electronic e-waste disposal company, that will export the waste to be recycled.

“One of my next ideas is to go to different schools. I definitely want to repeat it at my school next year or maybe later in the year, but I want to spread out and go to other schools,” he said, adding that it is important to have youth involved in matters dealing with the environment to foster a great future.

A World Economic Forum report in 2019, titled ‘A New Circular Vision for Electronics, Time for a Global Reboot’, described e-waste as the fastest-growing waste stream in the world, with 44.7 million tonnes generated in 2016, equivalent to 4,500 Eiffel Towers. It continued to say that the United Nations-dubbed “tsunami of e-waste” had a value of at least US$62.5 billion annually.

This is the bigger picture of which young Mr Harrison has put himself forward as a local crusader.

We, in this space, are encouraged that a Gen Z-er has demonstrated not just environmental consciousness, but has motioned social awareness of the effects of his generation on the world we all call home.

So often we see them glued to their devices, heads bowed, with limited view of the world. But Mr Harrison has refreshingly given hope that we are rearing not just learned beast, but youngsters — of our loins as Jamaicans — who will help to secure the space for generations after them.

As our reporter Ms Tamoy Ashman relayed, vice-principal and dean of studies at Campion College Mr David Henry shared that the initiative aligns perfectly with the school’s values and mission to mould students who are socially conscious and advocate for change.

“We’re always proud of students [for having] that kind of thinking that is not in any way school-led,” said Mr Henry.

We, too, are proud of young Mr Harrison.