No abstract

The aim of this thesis was to study governance aspects of informal electronic waste recycling and to provide better knowledge of the business in terms of structure, stakeholders, governance aspects and social impacts.The thesis consists of a cover essay and two papers appended at the end of the thesis. The cover essay summarizes the papers and puts them in context. The objective of Paper I is to study the business of informal electronic waste recycling in Pakistan and highlight its governance issues.Paper II assesses the social impacts of this business using UNEP-SETAC Guidelines for Social Life Cycle Assessment.The thesis examines these specific questions: Q1) What is the current Paper I presents the international and local e-waste flows, business structure, the stakeholders involved and the existing governance issues of the business. It shows weak enforcement of legislation, the complexities emerging with numerous stakeholders, the profitability of informal recycling, little concern for the health damaging exposure for workers from the poorest and most vulnerable people in society, and lack of awareness of the hazards involved. The paper also highlights how this 2 business lacks characteristics of good governance, which makes it a challenge to control this business.Paper II assesses the social impacts of informal e-waste recycling in Pakistan using UNEP/SETAC guidelines for conducting a Social Lifecycle Assessment (SLCA). It showed that this business has positive impacts relating to societal issues and individual/family economics, and in the economic development of Pakistan but otherwise most impacts are negative. The findings of Paper II fill an important data gap and can be integrated with data on other stages of ICT product lifecycle to produce a full SLCA of such products. Resultaten av studien fyller en viktig kunskapslucka och kan integreras med uppgifter om andra stadier av elektroniska produkters livscykel för att göra en full SLCA av sådana produkter.