Across the world the disposal of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment could represent either a substantial economic windfall, or a critical environmental dilemma, according to a new report.
The report - Electronics Recycling: A Global Strategic Business Report, by market research specialists Global Industry Analysts (GIA) found that an estimated 82 per cent of the total e-waste generated goes unrecycled, with over 3 million tonnes entering the waste stream in 2008.
The authors said that the municipal solid waste (MSW) stream is flooded with e-waste generated from large quantity of electronic devices.
Furthermore the report claimed that the accumulation of waste materials such as plastics, metals and silica, from electronic and electrical devices is leading to over capacity of incinerators and landfills.
The problem is fuelled by rapid advancements in technology, faster replacement cycles, and greater availability of recycled and new devices, the report said.
However, GIA added that concerns regarding resource conservation, presence of toxic materials and proper disposal management are promoting rapid growth in the global e-waste recycling market.
The report found that uncontrolled disposal, dismantling, and burning are major environmental issues and often lead to surface water pollution, atmospheric pollution, and groundwater contamination, in addition to causing health and occupational safety hazards mainly resulting from the indirect and direct exposure to toxic elements in recycling plants.
PVC, heavy metals (lead, mercury, cadmium, etc.), brominated flame retardants, and gases are some of the toxic compounds present in the e-waste.
According to the report’s authors such electric and electronic wastes, if properly treated, could be recycled or reclaimed for use in the future, and converted into novel revenue stream.
A potential gold mine
The analysts said that recycling of e-waste is expected to increase at a significant rate driven by environmental legislations and programs supporting environmental sustainability and corporate social responsibility.
Consumers get little incentive to recycle or reuse already used electronic devices, and according to GIA in the majority of the countries disposing off e-waste is relatively inexpensive and easy.
The report said that in many developing countries, feeble enforcement, inconsistent legislation and little control on recyclers resulted in inappropriate recycling and widespread dumping of hazardous e-waste.
However, according to GIA strict Government regulations for management of e-waste are expected to benefit the market for e-waste recycling.
The report cited several states in the US which have made electronics recovery programs mandatory. E-waste laws currently cover about 65 per cent of US residents, with legislation mandating either the provision of recycling programs by manufacturers or prohibiting specific items as acceptable trash.
Various regulations and directives established in the European Union (EU) are also cited for enhancing the reuse, recovery and recycling of e-waste.
Countries such as China and Japan are also reported to actively participating in the formulation of regulations for e-waste management.
Exporting the problem
According to the report electronic waste from developed nations such as the US and Europe are often dumped in developing nations such as China, Thailand and India, where it is recycled using conventional and crude methods.
GIA said that a major approach that would considerably deal with unacceptable recycling procedures would be banning of e-waste imports to developing countries.
However, the report cautioned that such bans have pushed the trade to black markets in several countries. The accumulation of e-waste and scarcity of recycling procedures associated with the extraction of precious metals continue to be the prime concerns, especially in the developing nations as the e-waste consists of potentially hazardous materials.
Restrictions of transboundary trade of e-waste from the developed to developing countries and mending of various loopholes in the e-waste diversion rates are all expected by the report’s authors to promote local recycling and reuse activities.
Opportunity knocks
On the back of large strides being taken by several emerging markets such as China, India, Philippines, Korea, Taiwan, and others, the report found that Asia-Pacific constitutes the largest and fastest growing regional market worldwide.
Meanwhile metals were found to represent the largest segment of the electronic recycling market.
E-waste contains valuable materials such as palladium, platinum, silver and gold. Proper recycling and management of e-waste could yield huge quantities of precious raw materials and metals, according to the report.
