Electronic waste (e-waste) is the fastest-growing class of waste because of the remarkable demand for various electronic gadgets such as mobiles and laptops. Moreover, its improper disposal is life-threatening because it includes hundreds of different substances, many of which are toxic elements and pollutants that can leach to soil and surface and groundwater or be emitted into the air, causing a major negative impact on the environment and public health. As a result, studies on the sustainable management of e-waste have gained increasing attention from researchers globally in the last decade to explore practical strategies to reduce or utilize this special waste. This review aims to provide an in-depth understanding of the major aspects of e-waste, including its definition, composition, and the impact of its end-of-life disposal on human health and the environment, while also focusing on some practical sustainable solutions and strategies toward effective e-waste management. It will also discuss the production of electronics; global demand and the mining boom; and the pollution caused by mining. It will also highlight the importance of effective governmental regulations, with which electronics producers, e-waste generators, and recycling facilities should comply. The research perspectives and orientations highlighted within this review can help in providing guidelines for future research studies and in exploring opportunities for more effective management of e-waste toward a circular economy and sustainable development.

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/3/1837/pdf?version=1675152487

Challenges and Opportunities in the Management of Electronic Waste and Its Impact on Human Health and Environment

Synergistic utilization mechanism of e-waste in regions with different levels of development: A case study of Guangdong Province

Effect-directed analysis of estrogenic chemicals in sediments from an electronic-waste recycling area.

Owing to a heightened necessity, the consumption rate of electronic items has increased exponentially in recent decades, resulting in huge quantities of electronic waste (e-waste). Though increasing e-waste has many adverse impacts, it also provides an ample opportunity of recover value from the waste through circular economy (CE) practices. However, the adoption to CE practices is jeopardised by myriad barriers. This paper wishes to identify and evaluate the barriers that hamper CE practices in e-waste management. First, 30 barriers to the adoption of CE practices in India e-waste management are identified by reviewing the existing literature and conformed using experts’ inputs. Furthermore, based on the experts’ opinion, the thirty barriers are categorised into social, economic, and environmental categories. An integrated multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) framework of fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratories (FDEMATEL) and fuzzy analytic network processes (FANP) is employed to understand the causal interrelationship and also to rank the barriers. Uncertainty about the profitability of the circular economy (E9), insufficient market demand (E6), lack of successful circular business model (E5), shortage of high-quality recycling materials (E4), and lack of adequate technology (EN6) have been identified as the top five barriers to the incorporation of CE practice in e-waste management. Out of these 30 barriers, 12 come under the cause group and 18 come under the effect group. Understanding the causal interrelationship and prioritization of barriers provide better insight into the barriers. This study offers some managerial implications that could assist industrial practitioners and policymakers.

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Modelling the Barriers to Circular Economy Practices in the Indian State of Tamil Nadu in Managing E-Wastes to Achieve Green Environment

An integrated multi-criteria decision-making approach for evaluating e-waste mitigation strategies

E-waste is one of the fastest growing streams of solid waste globally, and its effective management has become a focused issue, which requires a deep understanding of the core guiding theory of extended producer responsibility (EPR). Over the past 20 years, China, one of the world's largest producers of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE), has made great efforts to improve e-waste management along with the massive generation of e-waste. In 2012, China implemented a unique EPR-based e-waste fund policy. However, the fund policy is unsustainable due to the challenges of non-closed resource use, informal recycling, and fund imbalance. Beginning with an overview of these challenges, this paper focuses on redesigning the fund policy from a closed-loop lifecycle perspective in order to maintain a balanced development of the resource use loop and the fund system in China's ten-year plan. In doing so, two EPR instruments, recycling content standards and consumer-oriented deposits, are added to the current fund policy. Subsequently, three extension scenarios alternately changed a critical parameter of the model to test the impact on sustainable capabilities. In this way, the sustainable supply of funds and secondary resources for the e-waste industry can be established in China and effectively demonstrate solid waste management in developing countries. 

/pdf/managing-e-waste-from-a-closed-loop-lifecycle-perspective-203gvgql.pdf

Managing e-waste from a closed-loop lifecycle perspective: China’s challenges and fund policy redesign

This paper focuses on the issues about road traffic accident losses' estimation and security governance, which is paid close attention to in theoretical research and practical application analysis. Firstly, from the external economics view dividing into road traffic accident losses, the external cost was defined as the difference between total social cost and private cost, which were caused by road traffic accidents. Secondly, estimation models were presented about road traffic accident external cost, which included not only total social cost calculation method but also private cost one. Finally, based on existing statistics of China, both road traffic accident losses and external cost were calculated and analyzed in China since 2008, and a series of measures were put forward about strengthening the road traffic security governance. Overall, the research results can provide a reference for the theory research on externality, external cost estimation and the safety management about road traffic accidents.

Estimation of External Cost and Security Governance on Traffic Accidents

/pdf/correction-to-managing-e-waste-from-a-closed-loop-lifecycle-20zx2p7l.pdf

Yang Liu

Papers

Managing e-waste from a closed-loop lifecycle perspective: China’s challenges and fund policy redesign

Estimation of External Cost and Security Governance on Traffic Accidents

Correction to: Managing e‑waste from a closed‑loop lifecycle perspective: China’s challenges and fund policy redesign