Current Situation of E-Waste Issues in Mongolia

Abstract

Mongolia is a consumer of e-products and their parts are imported from abroad. Currently, e-waste represents the biggest and fastest growing manufacturing waste. The objectives of this study are collecting and analyzing data from statistical reports of Mongolia and comparing them to other countries, and recommending an infrastructure of e-waste management in the existing legal environment. Thereby, all data was published by governmental entities and central statistical bureaus. An e-product, such as computers and TV’s are leading by their imported quantity in Mongolia. The e-waste is becoming one of the most challenging environmental issues because of its tendency to be incompatible for reuse and recycling. However, up to now, a main portion of e-waste is utilized through re-using (45.1%) and disposing (31.9%), and fewer amounts are recycled (23.0%) as was estimated in a study supported with the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Japan, 2010. In conclusion, Mongolia needs to establish e-waste management by implementing core activities such as adapting experiences from high developed countries, harmonizing the corporation between in governmental entities and supporting business activities of recyclers and retailers. The green development policy was approved by the Mongolian Parliament in June, 2014. According to this new policy, it is needed to be applied recycling incentives to raise the environmental awareness of all stakeholders.