Below you will find a few examples of several countries’ solutions aimed to encourage better e-waste practices.
📍 California
California has a statewide system to manage e-waste. This system is funded through “advance recycling fees” paid by consumers.
📍 China
In China, some manufacturers have begun to “design electronics for recyclability”. Moreover, they have also taken on the responsibility of collecting and disposing the waste.
📍 Colombia
Colombia has put in place collection points across the country to make the recycling of e-waste more accessible.
📍 Côte d'Ivoire
In Côte d'Ivoire, citizens can learn to repair and responsibly dispose of their e-waste through a project called “Create Lab”.
📍 Egypt
In Egypt, policymakers have created a mobile app called “E-Tadweer” to help tackle the growing amounts of e-waste. Through the app, end users can “take their unwanted appliances to dedicated delivery points and exchange them for vouchers”. These vouchers can then be used to buy new electronics from participating stores. Egypt has also created a new agency to regulate its waste management industry and enforce its import ban on e-waste and other hazardous substances.
📍 Japan
In Japan, roughly 95% of the e-waste produced is recycled formally. The recycling rate is so high because customers have to pay an additional recycling fee or tax when they purchase new appliances. This fee is then used to cover the costs of formal recycling. Japan was notably the first country in the world to introduce a take-back law for electronics.
📍 Kazakhstan
A new law in Kazakhstan makes the separate collection and proper recycling of e-waste mandatory.
📍 Singapore
In Singapore, there is a repair cafés initiative called “Repair Kopitiam”, where local volunteers working at community centers help local residents repair their old or broken appliances. Policymakers have also created legislation that places the responsibility to collect end-of-life electronics on producers. Producers must than also make sure the collected waste is reused or recycled.
📍 Taiwan
The government of Taiwan has created a regulation to improve the process of disposing and recycling e-waste. The regulation requires electronics’ manufacturers and importers “to design products with recycling in mind” and take up responsibility for the whole lifecycle of their products. They must set up collection systems and fund the recycling and disposal of e-waste.
📍 Tunisia
Tunisia has drafted regulation to create a “polluter-pays system” for the imports of appliances and e-waste.
📍 UK
In the UK, Cambridge City Council has put up pink bins where residents can discard small electronics. The aim is to reduce the amount of e-waste ending up in incorrect waste streams. It is estimated that since the bins were installed in 2022 approximately “49 tonnes of small electrical appliances have been deposited” in them.
Read more about the solutions here:
- https://www.weforum.org/videos/countries-leading-recycling-e-waste/
- https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2024/04/e-waste-recycling-electronics-appliances/- https://www.waste360.com/mag/waste_japanese_recycling_law
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