4 - Policy issues for efficient management of E-waste in developing countries

Abstract

An efficient management of E-waste is rendered indispensable and regarded as a major challenge for today’s society. Greater contributory developed countries have established their policies on it and control their interests via either way of binding the legislation, paying to poor countries, and transferring used items in the name of bridging the techno-gap to underdeveloped countries. Such practices combined with in-house generation volume of E-waste in developing countries possess serious challenges to them. The major challenges they are facing either due to lack of or inadequate to handle the E-waste management practices. Most of the developing countries are still struggling for specific policy direction on E-waste, while one of the fastest growing economy and a large producer of E-waste countries, China and India could have finalized their legislation in very recent times; the implementation results are yet to have come. In this chapter, the policy constraints of developing countries for the effective management of E-waste have been analyzed with some particular examples. For this, the current practices, policy comparison between the developed and developing countries, and recommendations for a circular economy to the sustainable E-waste management in developing countries have been included.