The environmentally sound management of electrical and electronic waste in the Pacific island countries and territories

Abstract

In recent years, significant international trans-boundary movement has evolved in used refrigerators, other electrical appliances, personal computers and associated hardware, used electronic equipment and used cellular telephones for the removal of usable parts, for refurbishment and reuse and for processing for the recovery of raw materials. Import and export statistics provided globally by Parties to the Basel Convention for the year 2000 show that there were imports of more than 17.5 million tonnes and export of 1.6 million tonnes designated as used electrical and electronic assemblies or scrap. Trans-boundary movement of these goods is forecast to increase significantly as more and more countries produce or assemble electrical and electronic equipment and tighten control over acceptable disposal methods, adopt processes to recover valuable constituents and use safe practices to deal with the hazardous constituents in e-wastes (e.g. cadmium, lead, beryllium, CFCs, brominated flame retardants, mercury, nickel and certain organic and organo-metallic compounds). While offering some economic benefits, massive import of e-wastes coupled with the same wastes being generated locally is placing a heavy health and environmental burden, in particular to developing countries.