Current Situation
Population growth, increasing prosperity and changing consumption patterns in developing and emerging countries are causing rapidly increasing electronic waste (e-waste) volumes. More than 40 Megatons of e-waste was generated globally in 2014, from which only about 15 percent entered formal recycling practices. The global generation of e-waste is expected to rise to 50 Megatons a year by 2018. In many developing countries there is high demand for cheaper used electronics from abroad. An estimated 1.5 Megatons of used electronics were exported from the European Union in 2012, of which almost a third can be considered to be e-waste before export. The importing countries are not equipped for appropriate recycling and disposal of these new waste streams.
The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) wants to reduce the environmental and health impacts caused by improper treatment of e-waste and its partly toxic components. At the same time, a more effective retrieval of valuable substances in e-waste should be promoted, whilst safeguarding and improving the income opportunities that e-waste collectors and recyclers depend on through selling these materials. Currently public and private actors in partner countries receive inadequate support and guidance to plan and implement sustainable e-waste management approaches.
Aim
Organisations from development cooperation and international networks engage more strongly in the implementation of concepts for the sustainable management of waste electrical and electronic equipment.
Approach
The sector project develops and disseminates strategies on e-waste Management. It works in three fields of action:
1. The sector project advises the BMZ position on sustainable management of e-waste at the national and international level.
2. Public and private actors in partnering countries are supported in building up ther competencies and effectiveness, whilst international knowledge exchange is promoted. Here an emphasis is placed on legislation, financing mechanisms and extended producer responsibility (EPR) models. Particularly proactive actors are supported in the development and execution of their own solutions.
3. Alliances and cooperations on sustainable e-waste management are supported. In this regard the project collaborates closely with the international initiative Solving the E-waste Problem (StEP). Stronger engagement for improved electronic waste management is also sought amongst other industry initiatives.
So far e-waste management has been one of many components of the Concepts for Sustainable Waste Management sector project; however, due to the increasing political prominence of e-waste, this sector project will focus only on e-waste for the remaining project duration.
Impacts
The sector project has developed papers on political positioning as well as a roadmap for the BMZ on this topic. It also brought suggestions into the concept for the new bilateral e-waste project in Ghana. The sector project brought experiences from German development cooperation into the development of a StEP position paper on e-waste legislation, and has enabled colleagues working abroad to exchange with international organizations and projects on the topic through networking activities. The sector project also enabled exchange between the IMPEL network (European Union Network for the Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law), development cooperation partners and selected African representatives.