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E-waste it wisely: lessons from Africa
E-waste is the world’s fastest growing and most valuable domestic waste stream. The increasing production of e-waste is driving elevated levels of export from developed to developing countries. Although countries worldwide are actively recognising the issues around e-waste and introducing policies,...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Springer International Publishing
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8817158/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35155992 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s42452-022-04962-9 |
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author | Maes, Thomas Preston-Whyte, Fiona |
author_facet | Maes, Thomas Preston-Whyte, Fiona |
author_sort | Maes, Thomas |
collection | PubMed |
description | E-waste is the world’s fastest growing and most valuable domestic waste stream. The increasing production of e-waste is driving elevated levels of export from developed to developing countries. Although countries worldwide are actively recognising the issues around e-waste and introducing policies, legislation or regulations governing e-waste, a large fraction of e-waste, goes undocumented at its end-of-life. Much of the global e-waste is accumulating in open dumpsites in several African countries. Using available data, we calculate the total e-waste in Africa (locally produced plus imported e-waste) for 2019 to be between 5.8 and 3.4 metric tonnes (Mt). This is believed to be an underestimate, large data gaps exist, hindering more precise estimates. The data is further complicated by, sometimes intentional, differences in labelling and reporting between formal and intermittent informal importers. Based on the available data, the main African recipients of e-waste are Nigeria, Ghana, and Tanzania, with Kenya, Senegal and Egypt featuring as countries of concern. The lack of proper waste management in the recipient developing countries, leads to environmental contamination and human exposure. A coordinated, regional and global, approach is needed in tackling e-waste. Regulatory frameworks, together with monitoring and compliance mechanisms need to be developed, financed, and enforced. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8817158 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | Springer International Publishing |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-88171582022-02-07 E-waste it wisely: lessons from Africa Maes, Thomas Preston-Whyte, Fiona SN Appl Sci Case Study E-waste is the world’s fastest growing and most valuable domestic waste stream. The increasing production of e-waste is driving elevated levels of export from developed to developing countries. Although countries worldwide are actively recognising the issues around e-waste and introducing policies, legislation or regulations governing e-waste, a large fraction of e-waste, goes undocumented at its end-of-life. Much of the global e-waste is accumulating in open dumpsites in several African countries. Using available data, we calculate the total e-waste in Africa (locally produced plus imported e-waste) for 2019 to be between 5.8 and 3.4 metric tonnes (Mt). This is believed to be an underestimate, large data gaps exist, hindering more precise estimates. The data is further complicated by, sometimes intentional, differences in labelling and reporting between formal and intermittent informal importers. Based on the available data, the main African recipients of e-waste are Nigeria, Ghana, and Tanzania, with Kenya, Senegal and Egypt featuring as countries of concern. The lack of proper waste management in the recipient developing countries, leads to environmental contamination and human exposure. A coordinated, regional and global, approach is needed in tackling e-waste. Regulatory frameworks, together with monitoring and compliance mechanisms need to be developed, financed, and enforced. Springer International Publishing 2022-02-05 2022 /pmc/articles/PMC8817158/ /pubmed/35155992 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s42452-022-04962-9 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Case Study Maes, Thomas Preston-Whyte, Fiona E-waste it wisely: lessons from Africa |
title | E-waste it wisely: lessons from Africa |
title_full | E-waste it wisely: lessons from Africa |
title_fullStr | E-waste it wisely: lessons from Africa |
title_full_unstemmed | E-waste it wisely: lessons from Africa |
title_short | E-waste it wisely: lessons from Africa |
title_sort | e-waste it wisely: lessons from africa |
topic | Case Study |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8817158/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35155992 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s42452-022-04962-9 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT maesthomas ewasteitwiselylessonsfromafrica AT prestonwhytefiona ewasteitwiselylessonsfromafrica |