Dealing with e-waste Asumpta

Banning e-waste imports and enforcing green practice design is

necessary
to combat e-waste problems

In the era of digital technology, demand for the current electronic

products leads to the fast growth of e-waste problems around the world.

According to the WEEE Directive e-waste means electrical or electronic

equipment which is waste including all components, sub-assemblies and

consumables which are part of the product at the time of discarding (as

cited in Geeraerts, Schweizer & Illes, 2015, p.12). The easy way to deal

with e-waste is storage in landfills, but in developed countries the number

of landfills has decreased significantly, and shipping the waste to

developing countries is now seen as more profitable solution. This practice

can also be seen as a source of income for developing countries. However,

this practice causes several problems, particularly for the environment

and the health of those exposed to the waste. Thus, developing countries

have to ban importing e-waste. In implementing such a ban, has several

challenges, including the differing definitions of e-waste and the amount

Dealing with e-waste Asumpta

of illegal e-waste shipments which still continue in developing countries.

This essay will discuss e-waste trade and its regulation, and the specific

barriers to efforcing the ban in developing countries. It will then evaluate a

number of possible solutions to combat e-waste problems.

E-waste trade from developed to developing countries has increased

dramatically. According to the Basel Action Network reports, 80 percent of

total global e-waste is exported to developing countries each year

(Hagelekun as cited in Osibanjo & Nnorom, 2007). The USA, for example,

is only 10% of total e-waste recycled while 80% e-waste produced is

exported into Asia market every year. Other facts also show that almost

500 containers e-waste enter Nigeria and Lagos ports monthly, and a

large amount of e-waste from both Europe and North America is also

exported illegally to Asian market including Indonesia. This practice leads

to increase volume of e-waste in developing countries. E-waste contains

toxic and hazardous substances including lead, mercury, dioxins,

cadmium, arsenic, barium, CFCs which commonly are harmful to human

Dealing with e-waste Asumpta

health and environment because of creating pollution. In response to this,

The Basel Convention, an international convention, which was held in

2002 and 2010, established the multilateral agreement of banning e-

waste trade, and the strategic plans for its implementations. Beside this

regulation, the European Union has a regulation itself which prohibits e-

waste trade from EU to developing countries. Indonesia also adopts the

Basel Convention to create national regulation by precidental decree

number 61 years 1993 to prohibit the import of hazardous waste

(Aboeprajitno, Wardana & Indriani, 2008).

One of the main problems for banning import e-waste is it appears to be a

source of income for developing countries. Thus, despite government

regulations forbidding importing e-waste, the number of illegal shipments

seems still increases. In fact, the rising number of the second-hand

industries is in several countries. These industries produce electronic

products by re-using e-waste to be the newest products to trade again

with affordable prices. China, for instance, not only is the largest imported

e-waste but also the superior second-hand electronic market in the world.
Dealing with e-waste Asumpta

In 2003 China earned about UU$ 227.46 billion from exporting second-

hand products (Osibanjo & Nnorom, 2007). The valuable commodities of

e-waste, such as gold, silver and palladium moreover, are profitable

estimated one ton of mobile phone contains 3.5 kg silver, 340 g gold and

140 g palladium. The number of these materials, in addition, is at a tiny

number in the earth so either collecting or recycling the materials is more

cost-effective than mining process (Osibanjo & Nnorom, 2007). However,

the overall costs of the e-waste problems for developing countries far

outweigh any economic benefits they receive. This is because 75% of e-

waste imported is useless and toxic materials (Osibanjo & Nnorom, 2007).

Thus, much money must be spent to deal with the problems associated

with e-waste. For instance, in Indonesia, the amount of household e-

waste, namely televisions, personal computers, mobile phones,

refrigerators, and washing machines was estimated to 3,195,381 million

tonnes per month in 2015. To deal with this waste, total expenses were

approximately 85,532,613,000 IDR or 9,284,000 USD which is estimated

from some stages in e-waste process, namely, collection, dismantling and

sorting, end-processing cost, and transporting e-waste (Andarani, P & G,

Naohiro, 2015). The growing amount of e-waste will lead to increase the

total cost of recycle process. Not only to deal with e-waste but also other

costs because of the environmental impacts. For instance, Chinese

government has to provide annual cost amount around US$1,500,000

(approximately 1,630,000) to construct water supply infrastructure

because of the lack of clean water in Guiyu, the centre of e-waste process
Dealing with e-waste Asumpta

in China. This is caused by the increasing amount of hazardous e-waste

substances in water sources.

Apart from the financial incentives encouraging e-waste trade to continue,

there are other reasons why the ban lacks impact. First, there is no

standard internationally accepted definition of e-waste. Thus, every

country has different check lists or a series of inspections to determine

particular e-waste items. In European countries, for example, the

assessment of e-waste categories follows the European Waste Catalogue

(EWC) while in some Asian countries, it follows the Basel Convention. The

broad and different definitions about e-waste and commodity regulations

lead to the difference interpretations of waste and commodity definitions

among countries (http://www.wikipedia.com, 2013). This ambiguity will be

exploited either exporters or importers to make an own judgment between

waste and commodity to avoid e-waste investigation.

A solution to the problem is to establish clear and appropriate standard

definitions of e-waste in the whole world (Wendell, 2011). Actually,

controlling e-waste shipments will be effective when a common and clear

framework is used international standard and every country follows the

same pattern. The goal of the same and clear definitions is to avoid the

different interpretations of e-waste category among government,

exporters and importers. For instance, Hong Kong has a good framework

to assess e-waste shipments in which all electronic products that for

importing and exporting purposes have presumption as e-waste, and then

the products would be acceptable if they are for reuse purpose (second
Dealing with e-waste Asumpta

hand products) without repairing (Wendell, 2011). Adopting the same

standard also does not allow several countries with the high level of

corruption to offer a flexible assessment of e-waste between importers

and government.

Unfortunately, in developing countries illegal e-waste shipments still

occur. According to the Basel Convention, e-waste shipments to

developing countries have been prohibited, though approximately 2

million tonnes of e-waste are exported illegally from the USA and EU to

developing countries each year (Zoetman as cited in Geeraerts et al.,

2015). There are several factors which caused this issue. Firstly, an

incomplete aspect of the Basel Convention which causes this regulation

will be not going on to the countries which do not sign this convention, for

instance, the USA which can import e-waste to other countries, such as

Nigeria and India without getting criminal penalties from this regulation.

Secondly, the lack of law or regulation about banning import e-waste is

experienced by some countries, such as India, Uganda, and South Africa.

Therefore, the e-waste shipments can happen unrestricted in there.

Interestingly, the weakness enforcement of the law also leads to a

country, such as China with a clear policy about banning e-waste to

receive around 70% of importing e-waste each year (CEW).

The other possible solution to overcome the growth of illegal e-waste

shipments could be the establishment of the multinational enforcement
strategy. Since e-waste trafficking is an international crime which is similar
to theft, human trafficking, drugs, firearms trafficking and money
laundering, establishing international cooperation or joint investigation
teams between major stakeholders in the field of enforcement and
prosecution is needed (Geeraerts et al., 2015; Ludgren,2012). The
members of this cooperation involve Europol, Interpol, the Basel
Dealing with e-waste Asumpta

Secretariat, police services, environmental agencies, environmental

inspectorates. This strategy is important to control the trans-boundary
movement of hazardous waste and to investigate the link to reduce this
crime (INTERPOL as cited in Lundgren, 2012). Inter-agency cooperation would
be
enhanced if all countries were to enforce the Basel
Conventions global ban on the transboundary movement
of hazardous waste.

Moreover, besides banning the import of e-waste, one popular solution to

address the huge amount of e-waste is green practice design. This

method may help developed countries to tackle e-waste issues. According

to Murugesan (2008), green practice design refers to the study and

practice of designing, manufacturing, using, and disposing electronic

devices efficiently and effectively with minimal or no impact on

environment (p.26). The method has several benefits. Firstly, it is an

eco-friendly method. This method supports the environment to create low

emission, produce less hazardous materials and support reuse and recycle

process. Secondly, green practice design can address the increasing cost

of e-waste. That is true that a lot amount of money has to be paid to deal

with e-waste issues, such as collecting, taxing, packing, shipping and

recycling costs. The main reason of adopting this method is to design

products which address environmental issue without spending much

money. In addition, when adopting this method, business will reduce

power consumption in the products. Thus, business and consumers will

use energy efficiently which means the issue about increasing energy

demand can be addressed.

In conclusion, although e-waste seems to provide economical benefits for

receiving countries, obviously it leads to human and environmental

Dealing with e-waste Asumpta

consequences. Banning import e-waste is an appropriate approach to

handle e-waste problems in developing countries but it is not easy way to

enforce. In order to combat these issues, government need to establish a

clear standard definitions of e-waste, to build joint investigation teams to

efforce illegal shipments and to deal with e-waste by forming a team work

between importing and receiving countries. Another approach which can

be done by developed countries builds green practice design to recycle e-

waste. This means the rich countries must stop exploitation for poor

countries by doing recycle process in their own countries without shipping

e-waste to others.
Dealing with e-waste Asumpta

References

Aboeprajitno, A., Wardana, D., & Indriani, C. (2008). E-waste management. Tech
Monitor, 48. Retrieved from http://www.techmonitor.net/

Healey, J. (1999). Recycling. Issue in Society, 114.

Geeraerts, K., Schweizer, J., & Illes, A. (2015). Illegal e-waste shipments from the
EU to China. Retrieved from http://efface.eu/

Lundgren, K. (2012). The global impact of e-waste: addressing the challenge.

Retrieved from http://www.ilo.org/

Murugesan, S. (2008). Harnessing green IT: principles and practices. Green

Computing. Retrieved from www.pitt.edu

Osibanjo, O., & Nnorom, I. C. (2007). The challenge of electronic waste (e-waste)
management in developing countries. Waste Management & Research, 25,
489-501. Retrieved from www.osibanjo@baselnigeria,com

Wendell, K. J. (2011). Improving enforcement of hazardous waste laws: a regional

look at e-waste shipment control in asia. Retrieved from http://inece.org/

Wikipedia. (2013). Electronic waste. Retrieved from http://wikipedia.org