The challenge of electronic waste (e-waste) management in developing countries

Abstract

Information and telecommunications technology (ICT) and computer Internet networking has penetrated nearly every aspect of modern life, and is positively affecting human life even in the most remote areas of the developing countries. The rapid growth in ICT has led to an improvement in the capacity of computers but simultaneously to a decrease in the products lifetime as a result of which increasingly large quantities of waste electrical and electronic equipment (e-waste) are generated annually. ICT development in most developing countries, particularly in Africa, depends more on secondhand or refurbished EEEs most of which are imported without confirmatory testing for functionality. As a result large quantities of e-waste are presently being managed in these countries. The challenges facing the developing countries in e-waste management include: an absence of infrastructure for appropriate waste management, an absence of legislation dealing specifically with e-waste, an absence of any framework for end-of-life (EoL) product take-back or implementation of extended producer responsibility (EPR). This study examines these issues as they relate to practices in developing countries with emphasis on the prevailing situation in Nigeria. Effective management of e-waste in the developing countries demands the implementation of EPR, the establishment of product reuse through remanufacturing and the introduction of efficient recycling facilities. The implementation of a global system for the standardization and certification/labelling of secondhand appliances intended for export to developing countries will be required to control the export of electronic recyclables (e-scarp) in the name of secondhand appliances.

I am more than the sum of my parts: an e-waste design fiction

“…At least one person opted to undertake additional reading about e-waste. Several readers raised questions about the ethics of planned obsolescence-'the idea that producers might want to decrease the durability of their goods in order to induce customers to replace their goods more frequently' [27]-in a world with self-aware machines. They wondered how they would approach the replacement and maintenance of their technologies if their technologies had opinions about such topics.…”

“…In any of those cases, as long as I'm not amongst the computers that end up abandoned or unused [24], then I should be able to continue working for quite a number of years. But if I find myself in one of the many shipping containers labeled 'development aid' or 'second-hand products' [22] that end up in Agbogbloshie, Ghana, Taizhou, China, or Delhi, India [21], [25], [26], then I might end up in an 'e-waste dumping ground' [27]. A dumping ground is a large, often informal, e-waste processing site [27].…”

“…DISCUSSION E-waste research appears to be at a crossroads. In the early 2000s, a number of reports published 'alarming' statistics about the prevalence of WEEE being shipped from developed countries, such as the United States, England, and Canada, to developing countries, such as Ghana, China, and Indonesia [15], [27], [51], [52]. The reports raised concerns about the toxicity of WEEE and highlighted numerous dangers associated with the informal processes being used to dismantle WEEE in developing countries [15], [51], [52].…”

“…But if I find myself in one of the many shipping containers labeled 'development aid' or 'second-hand products' [22] that end up in Agbogbloshie, Ghana, Taizhou, China, or Delhi, India [21], [25], [26], then I might end up in an 'e-waste dumping ground' [27]. A dumping ground is a large, often informal, e-waste processing site [27]. If I end up in one of those, then I could be dismantled in such a way that I endanger the people and the environment in the surrounding area.…”

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and organochlorine pesticides in rice hull from a typical e-waste recycling area in southeast China: temporal trend, source, and exposure assessment

“…Developing countries in East and South Asia, such as China, India, and Pakistan, have became important sites for electronic waste (e-waste) recycling recently (Osibanjo and Nnorom 2007). It is estimated that approximately 70 % of e-waste generated worldwide is processed in China every year (Robinson 2009).…”