An analysis of electronic waste management strategies and recycling operations in Malaysia: Challenges and future prospects

Abstract

The generation of waste electrical and electronic equipment or e-waste has become a significant and current issue in the world, which brings negative environment and health impacts due to the presence of toxic metals and chemical substances. On the other hand, value recovery from e-waste offers significant economic benefits due to the valuable metals in e-waste, such as precious and base metals. Many developed countries have employed effective e-waste management strategies and state-of-art recycling technologies, such as integrated pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical smelters to manage this waste stream sustainably and extract the maximum value components from this secondary resource. This has not been the case in most of the developing countries and e-waste management is still in its infancy. The value recovery operations have been informal and semi-formal without incorporating required waste disposal strategies. Addressing this current socio-environmental issue, especially in developing countries, has been significant to achieve some of the United Nation's sustainable development goals (SDGs), such as clean water and sanitation (Goal 6), sustainable cities and communities (Goal 11), responsible production and consumption (Goal 12), and life below water (Goal 14), by 2030 (The United Nations: Sustainable development goals, 2018). This work discusses the current status in Malaysia in terms of both the e-waste management strategies connected to legislative frameworks and e-waste value recovery operations. Key socio-techno-economic challenges that hinder the application of sustainable waste management strategies and value recovery operations were identified and future directions that leads to the sustainable e-waste management in Malaysia will also be discussed.