An Analysis of E-Waste Collection Across Countries

Abstract

In line with technological development, electronic waste has become the world's fastest-growing waste category, increasing three times faster than the world's population. Although e-waste legislation covers about 66% of the world's population, the global recycling rate for e-waste is only 20%. This poses a threat to both the environment and human health, as e-waste emits toxic substances during informal handling. Additionally, e-waste contains raw materials that go to waste, valued at 57 billion USD in 2019. The increase in e-waste generation, combined with the slow adoption of formal management, has become a rapidly increasing global problem and a threat to the circular economy. The urgency of this issue has laid the foundation for this thesis. This thesis aims to explore how variables such as the number of e-waste-related legislation and price changes of gold and metals may affect the generation and formal collection of e-waste in different countries. It also investigates the magnitude of the impact of potential effects.