The global loss due to inadequate e-waste management practices amounts to $37 billion annually, with Bangladesh being a significant contributor, according to a study conducted by the International Telecommunication Union.
The report 鈥楾he Global E-WASTE Monitor 2024鈥� published by the ITU, a specialised agency of the United Nations, Bangladesh is one of the largest e-waste generators in the South Asian region and the country generated 367 million kilograms of e-waste in 2022 at a rate of 2.2 kilograms per capita.
The report defined e-waste as the waste stream that contains both hazardous and valuable materials generated from disposed electrical and electronic equipment.
The UN agency published statistics of e-waste generation in 193 countries based on the data for the year 2022, showing that a record 62 billion kilograms of e-waste were generated globally in 2022, averaging 7.8 kilograms per person a year.
The report explained that despite gaining $28 billion from metal recovery and $23 billion from reduced greenhouse gas emissions, the costs of e-waste treatment and associated health and environmental impacts remain high.
With $10 billion spent on treatment and $78 billion in externalised costs, the net result is a staggering $37 billion annual loss in global e-waste management, it said.
The externalised costs amount to an estimated $36 billion in long-term socioeconomic and environmental costs, $22 billion representing the cost of illnesses and decreases in human capital, and the average monetised value of working lives caused by mercury emissions, $19 billion arising from the release of plastic waste into the environment, less than $1 billion arising from the release of lead into the environment and its effects on wildlife and humans.
Experts said that Bangladesh was incurring loss in this sector due to lack of a formal mechanism in e-waste management, and said e-waste management could be an industry if the government had set up proper process.
Hridoy Roy, a lecturer of the chemical engineering department at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, told 抖阴精品 that assessing the economic impact of e-waste management in Bangladesh would be hard for various reasons.
鈥極ne of the main reasons is currently there is no formal mechanism for collecting and recycling e-waste in the country. Policies regarding this need to be introduced accordingly,鈥� he said.
The ITU report stated that Bangladesh had only a few licensed e-waste dismantlers, which used basic resource recovery practices that were polluting and unsafe.
In the Southern Asian region, India, Iran, Thailand and Pakistan were above Bangladesh in generating e-waste, amounting to 4,137 million kilograms, 817 million kilograms, 753 million kilograms and 559 million kilograms of e-waste respectively in 2022.
Sri Lanka, Nepal, Afghanistan, Bhutan and the Maldives stayed below Bangladesh.
Of these countries, the first three generated 175 million kilograms, 42 million kilograms, 32 million kilograms respectively and the remaining two five million kilograms each.
While not highlighting on the formal and informal e-waste management in Bangladesh, the report said that only 22.3 per cent of this e-waste was documented as formally collected and recycled in an environmentally sound manner in the global scenario.
The report said that e-waste had a direct and severe impact on the environment and people鈥檚 health.
E-waste contains toxic and persistent substances, such as the flame retardants that are used in appliances and in EEE containing plastics.
It also said that several international studies of the emissions caused by open burning of various materials, including hazardous materials, highlighted the health risks of inhaling the heavy metals and brominated flame retardants contained in plastic e-waste.
Mentioning unmanaged recycling of temperature exchange equipment, such as refrigerants as another major, but often overlooked concern, the report stated that it contributed to climate change and depletion of the ozone layer.
The report observed that the ministry of environment, forest, and climate change of Bangladesh issued the e-waste Management Rules in 2021, after nearly 10 years of talks.
The rules introduce the extended producer responsibility framework for e-waste management, requiring producers of almost all EEE to register with the Department of Environment, have an approved e-waste management plan and reach collection targets of 10 per cent in 2022, increasing annually by 10 percentage points to 50 per cent by 2026.
The report said that the government of Bangladesh had been unable to implement the rules despite the progress made.
M Shahidul Islam, chairman of the department of geography and environment at the University of Dhaka, told 抖阴精品 that consumption of electrical and electronics enhanced in Bangladesh, so disposing these goods had become a matter of concern, as it was a densely populated country.
鈥楤angladesh has two main resources, water and soil. Either disposed EEE, or e-waste goes to water, or mixes in soil. Water and soil get polluted by the heavy metals of e-waste, such as lead,鈥� he said.
鈥楽pecific policy and its implementation are needed for e-waste management. But e-waste management in Bangladesh is currently treated as a casual issue without much seriousness,鈥� he added.
