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Abstract Recycling and sustainable development issues are increasing in importance around the world. This aspect is more prominent in developing countries, in
which there are many informal recycling activities and few environmental legislations regulating waste management. This chapter discusses the recycling challenges
regarding the adoption of e-waste reverse logistics under the perspective of developing countries. For this purpose, we gathered information from papers published in
international databases and reports such as the United Nations Environment
Programme and Global e-waste Monitor, thus identifying data available to American
countries (Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Mexico), South Africa and Asian countries
(China, India, Russia, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan, South Korea, Thailand and
Singapore). As key findings we can point out the categorization of the barriers into
financial/economics, environmental, market related, legal, policy related, management, knowledge related and technical and technological related. As main contributions of this chapter, we can highlight (i) the compilation of information related to
recycling challenges of e-waste in developing countries, and (ii) the identification of
some solutions and actions to overcome these barriers is also performed, which can
be useful for practitioners and researchers in this field.
Keywords Circular economy · Developing countries · E-waste · Electronic
residues · Reconditioning · Recycling challenges · Reverse logistics · Residues
revalorization · Urban mining · Waste management
5.1 Introduction
It can be observed that recycling and the related issue of sustainable development
are increasing in importance around the world (de Oliveira et al. 2012). Although
reverse logistics and waste management practices are in state of infancy in developing countries representing a great challenge (Sasaki and Araki 2013; Abdulrahman
et al. 2014; Bouzon et al. 2015; Ferri et al. 2015), many legislations focused on
waste management have arisen over the past decades (Kumar et al. 2017; Nnorom
and Osibanjo 2008; Appelbaum 2002).
A valuable category of waste and the most rising one in the world (Awasthi et al.
2018) is the electric and electronic equipments waste, or E-waste. Based on the
literature, we can highlight the evaluation of the assessment of E-waste management
in European Union (Appelbaum 2002), North America and developing and emerging
countries (Ongondo et al. 2011). However, there are different patterns of E-waste
management in general guided by regulations or economic reasons. Despite the
federal E-waste regulation in force in Brazil, China and India, many problems
related to E-waste hazardous substances and occupational health can be observed in
those countries. In this context, it is worthful to analyse the behaviour of E-waste
management in the world to provide suitable policies, strategies and sustainable
solutions for efficient decision making.
P. Guarnieri et al.
Abstract Recycling and sustainable development issues are increasing in importance around the world. This aspect is more prominent in developing countries, in
which there are many informal recycling activities and few environmental legislations regulating waste management. This chapter discusses the recycling challenges
regarding the adoption of e-waste reverse logistics under the perspective of developing countries. For this purpose, we gathered information from papers published in
international databases and reports such as the United Nations Environment
Programme and Global e-waste Monitor, thus identifying data available to American
countries (Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Mexico), South Africa and Asian countries
(China, India, Russia, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan, South Korea, Thailand and
Singapore). As key findings we can point out the categorization of the barriers into
financial/economics, environmental, market related, legal, policy related, management, knowledge related and technical and technological related. As main contributions of this chapter, we can highlight (i) the compilation of information related to
recycling challenges of e-waste in developing countries, and (ii) the identification of
some solutions and actions to overcome these barriers is also performed, which can
be useful for practitioners and researchers in this field.
Keywords Circular economy · Developing countries · E-waste · Electronic
residues · Reconditioning · Recycling challenges · Reverse logistics · Residues
revalorization · Urban mining · Waste management
5.1 Introduction
It can be observed that recycling and the related issue of sustainable development
are increasing in importance around the world (de Oliveira et al. 2012). Although
reverse logistics and waste management practices are in state of infancy in developing countries representing a great challenge (Sasaki and Araki 2013; Abdulrahman
et al. 2014; Bouzon et al. 2015; Ferri et al. 2015), many legislations focused on
waste management have arisen over the past decades (Kumar et al. 2017; Nnorom
and Osibanjo 2008; Appelbaum 2002).
A valuable category of waste and the most rising one in the world (Awasthi et al.
2018) is the electric and electronic equipments waste, or E-waste. Based on the
literature, we can highlight the evaluation of the assessment of E-waste management
in European Union (Appelbaum 2002), North America and developing and emerging
countries (Ongondo et al. 2011). However, there are different patterns of E-waste
management in general guided by regulations or economic reasons. Despite the
federal E-waste regulation in force in Brazil, China and India, many problems
related to E-waste hazardous substances and occupational health can be observed in
those countries. In this context, it is worthful to analyse the behaviour of E-waste
management in the world to provide suitable policies, strategies and sustainable
solutions for efficient decision making.
P. Guarnieri et al.