ABSTRACT
The chapter examines the problem of e-waste movements among countries around the world, particularly from high-income economies with advanced waste management systems towards low and middle-income countries with serious public health and environmental repercussions. Despite the fact that the Basel Convention forbids certain hazardous waste streams to be exported into countries with poor waste management facilities, the environmental pollution associated with e-waste flow reaches alarming levels due to illegally or legally importing large amounts of waste continuing unbated. The chapter investigates the gaps in the e-waste management system which led to the transboundary movements of e-waste items supported by academic literature review. The chapter highlights the main challenges of e-waste exportation and importation issues in some major geographical areas such as Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa, and North America and how unsound waste management practices feed a new “colonization” form in the twenty-first century. Best policies and practices are revealed to mitigate the illegal traffic of the e-waste flow or “ second hand” electronic goods towards poorer countries. The expansion of urban mining practices and the circular economy paradigm should reduce the global traffic of e-waste flows combined with the improvement of the Basel Convention content and the ratification process.
