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Editing E-Waste

English

The world generates over 50 million tonnes of electronic waste (e-waste) each year. But worldwide, we're recycling just 12.5% of the e-waste we generate, and no country in the world recycles even half of its e-waste. When e-waste ends up in the trash, it can harm water and wildlife.

For instance, in the Korle Lagoon near an illegal e-waste dump site, copper was found at 66 times the safety threshold. Copper is toxic to many invertebrates and can damage gills, kidneys, and other organs of most fish. People living in areas with high e-waste dumping have heavy metals in their bodies at rates that indicate susceptibility to cancers, neurodevelopmental disorders, thyroid dysfunction, and DNA damage.

Repair is better than recycling, for reducing the amount of e-waste we generate and for conserving the materials and energy that go into electronics manufacturing. Keeping our phones an additional year on average would be the carbon equivalent of taking 636,000 cars off the road.

But repair still makes e-waste, in the form of cracked screens and dead batteries. Those dead parts should go to an electronics recycler, not be put in the trash.

[image|2623925|size=large|align=center]

If you're recycling something that should've lasted longer, next time, buy repairable—check out our smartphone, laptop, and tablet repairability score guides.

Give Your E-Waste to a Certified Recycler

Electronics recyclers can recover many of the materials inside electronics. There is 100 times as much gold in a ton of cell phones as in a ton of gold ore.

A lot of big box stores take back e-waste, but beware: Several of them have faced lawsuits for improperly disposing of e-waste and other hazardous materials. Finding a drop-off location via a recycling organization like Call2Recycle helps you make sure your e-waste won’t end up in the trash.

We've collected links about e-waste recycling options and laws around the world below. If you see a broken link or have information that's not listed, feel free to edit this page directly (it's a wiki!) or leave a comment.

How to Recycle Rechargeable Batteries

Changing a battery is one of the best ways to extend the life of your devices. But it's especially important that you don't chuck spent lithium-ion batteries into your household recycling bin.

Batteries have specific handling requirements, which means that not all e-waste recyclers take them. Confirm that your recycler takes your type of battery before leaving it in a drop-off location.

Skip to recycling locators to find an e-waste recycler near you:

  • [[E-Waste#Section_United_States_E_Waste_Laws_and_Recycling_Locators|US]]

  • [[E-Waste#Section_Europe_E_Waste_Laws_and_Recycling_Locators|EU]]

  • [[E-Waste#Section_UK|UK]]

  • [[E-Waste#Section_Canadian_E_Waste_Laws_and_Recycling_Locators|Canada]]

  • [[E-Waste#Section_Australia_E_Waste_Laws_and_Recycling_Locators|Australia]]

  • [[E-Waste#Section_New_Zealand_E_Waste_Laws_and_Recycling_Locators|New Zealand]]

  • [[E-Waste#Section_India_E_Waste_Laws_and_Recycling_Locators|India]]

  • [[E-Waste#Section_Asia_E_Waste_Laws_and_Recycling_Locators|Asia]]

  • [[E-Waste#Section_Latin_America_E_Waste_Laws_and_Recycling_Locators|Latin America]]

  • [[E-Waste#Section_Middle_East_E_Waste_Laws_and_Recycling_Locators|Middle East]]

  • [[E-Waste#Section_Africa_E_Waste_Laws_and_Recycling_Locators|Africa]]

What If My Battery Is Swollen?

Be very careful in handling a swollen battery, because it’s more likely to catch fire or explode. See [[What to do with a swollen battery]] for more specific advice.

[image|2624886|size=medium|align=center]

Wait, Batteries Can Explode? Or Catch Fire?

Generally, batteries are pretty safe. You’re far more likely to be struck by lightning than experience a lithium-ion battery catching on fire.

But you’re at higher risk if you work for a waste or recycling company. These facilities have compactors, shredders, and other machines that break stuff into more manageable pieces. If a battery gets caught up in a shredder or compactor, it can break open and start a fire. Waste facility battery fires are up 38% since 2017, and 90% of recyclers’ fires are from lithium-ion batteries.

Heavy Metals from Batteries Contaminate Our Water

If lithium-ion batteries make it to a landfill, that’s bad news: They can leach heavy metals (such as cobalt, copper, and nickel) and dissolved gasses (such as sulfuric acid) into the soil and nearby waterways.

Recycling your battery properly means you’re helping keep waste workers, waste facilities, and our water supply safe.

What Should I Do with Single-Use Batteries?

The US Environmental Protection Agency says that alkaline and zinc-carbon batteries can usually be safely put in the trash. However, some governments have laws against throwing single-use batteries in the trash. Regardless, if your local waste authority collects them, recycling is best—for materials recovery, for conserving energy that goes into mining and manufacturing, and for keeping potentially hazardous materials out of the trash.

Many household hazardous waste collection facilities collect single-use batteries that contain dangerous metals.

United States E-Waste Laws and Recycling Locators

National E-Waste Recycling Locators

Rechargeable Battery Recyclers

Visit Call2Recycle to find a battery take-back location or get a shipping label. Via its mail-in program, Call2Recycle takes rechargeable batteries, single-use ("primary") batteries, cell phones, and e-bike batteries. Its partner locations may take some or all of these things.

Other E-Waste Recyclers

Earth911 has a great general e-waste recycling locator.

State-by-State E-Waste Legislation

The United States of America does not have a national e-waste mandate. However, individual states have passed state e-waste laws. The list below is a community-built list. If your state isn't listed below, don't assume there's not state e-waste law for you to follow.

Alabama

  • Alabama e-waste law: In Alabama, large producers of e-waste that counts as "universal waste" (e.g., some kinds of batteries, mercury-containing devices, and electric lamps) need to recycle that e-waste formally. Households are generally exempt, but it's good practice to recycle anyway.

Arizona

California

Connecticut

Georgia

Illinois

Indiana

Kentucky

Maryland

Michigan

New Jersey

New York

Pennsylvania

South Carolina

Texas

Texas requires all companies that manufacture new computers to offer free recycling for consumers.

Europe E-Waste Laws and Recycling Locators

Europe E-Waste Recycling Locators by Country

Austria

Belgium

Estonia

  • Kuhuviia.ee: web app helping with waste sorting/disposal.

Finland

France

  • Ecosystem: Need to get rid of a device? (for private people and professionals)

Germany

Greece

Hungary

Ireland

Italy

Netherlands

Poland

Portugal

Spain

Sweden

Switzerland

UK

As in the EU, UK retailers must take back e-waste. You may also take e-waste to a recycling collection facility:

Europe E-Waste Laws

The European Union Directive on e-waste stipulates in article 5 that all households can return their e-waste free of charge. You can return your irreparable equipment free of charge to

  • specialised collection facilities,

  • to the distributor from whom you purchase an equivalent new product, even electronic merchants,

  • or to department stores, who are obliged to take back small appliances without any obligation for you to purchase a new product.

Batteries, cells and lamps can in many countries be returned in collectors in supermarkets and a large number of small retail stores.

UK e-waste recycling laws, for now, map pretty closely to EU laws. Government ministers announced in 2017 that all EU environmental laws would apply to post-Brexit Britain, including the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive.

UK retailers need to take back used WEEE, and UK repairers and refurbishers of WEEE may need a pollution, prevention, and control permit.

Canadian E-Waste Laws and Recycling Locators

Canadian E-Waste Recycling Locators

Rechargeable Battery Recyclers

Call2Recycle.ca has a national recycling locator for Canada. Veolia also has a prepaid mail-in battery recycling program available to all provences.

Other E-Waste Recyclers

Canadian E-Waste Recycling Laws

You can find details about e-waste management on a per Provence level on this site.

Australia E-Waste Laws and Recycling Locators

Australia E-Waste Recycling Locators

Australia E-Waste Recycling Laws

New Zealand E-Waste Laws and Recycling Locators

New Zealand E-Waste Recycling Locators

New Zealand E-Waste Recycling Laws

India E-Waste Laws and Recycling Locators

India is the world's third-biggest contributor of e-waste, after China and the US. Despite attempts to regulate e-waste, much continues to be imported into India and informally recycled in hubs like Seelampur.

Seelampur demonstrates some of the challenging balances of e-waste collection schemes: Currently, 95% of India's e-waste is processed by informal, illegal waste pickers, an incredibly high collection and processing percentage. The economy in Seelampur is so dependent on the processing of e-waste that even though pollution makes the skies gray and workers often die of respiratory problems, locals are reluctant to disrupt the status quo. Changes to the system will need to weigh the lives and livelihoods of the informal waste picking network against the benefits of modernizing e-waste recycling in India. Ideally, governments will find a way to leverage the informal network's incredible collection rates and integrate the informal workers into the developing formal recycling system.

Today, there are a few dozen formal e-waste recyclers in India (see lists below). In February 2022, the Delhi government announced plans to build the nation's first e-waste recycling park in the Narela industrial area.

India E-Waste Recycling Locators

India E-Waste Recycling Laws

  • As of 2016, per the E-Waste Management Rules, India requires that businesses generating e-waste recycle it, that e-waste recyclers be registered with the government, and that manufacturers of e-waste products pay back a deposit (with interest) to consumers who return covered products. Manufacturers must also include a symbol indicating that the product shouldn't be discarded in household waste. By 2023, businesses should be forwarding at least 70% of e-waste to recycling or dismantling centres.

Asia E-Waste Laws and Recycling Locators

According to the United Nations,

Asia is the largest consumer of electrical and electronic equipment [EEE — anything with a battery or a cord], buying nearly half of EEE put on the market. Asia as a whole not only accounts for the majority of EEE sales, but also generates the highest volume of e-waste—estimated at 16 million tonnes in 2014. However, on a per capita basis, this amounts to only to 3.7 kg per inhabitant, as compared to Europe and the Americas, which generate nearly four times as much per capita — 15.6 kg per inhabitant.

With growing incomes, consumers in Asia now replace their gadgets more frequently. In addition, many products are designed for low-cost production, but not necessarily repair, refurbishment or easy recycling.

All the countries in the region control e-waste either via the Basel Convention or their national legal frameworks. However, measures to control the import of second-hand electronics and e-waste are different among the countries and regions. There are two types of control measures for the import of e-waste and second-hand electronics: 1) to control the import of e-waste and  not restrict the import of second-hand electronics (Province of China Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, Republic of Korea, Singapore and Vietnam); and 2) to prohibit the import of e-waste and prohibit or restrict the import of second-hand electronics (Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Vietnam).

Between 2012 and 2017, e-waste in east and south-east Asia jumped 63%.

Despite these formal steps, enforcement of these measures remains a significant challenge in these countries and many others around the globe.

For more information, please see the Regional E-Waste-Monitor.

Cambodia

  • Cambodia's 1999 Solid Waste Management e-waste Sub-decree prohibited import of e-waste from abroad. Though there is no national e-waste management plan, some municipalities have their own solutions: for instance, the Phnom Penh Municipality began an e-waste management project in 2009.

  • Battery disposal bins are available at many markets in Phnom Penh, including the Sorya Shopping Mall, Plaza, Lucky Supermarkets, Exchange Square Eden Garden, Olympia, Stung Meanchey Thmey, TK and the Marts at Total, Tela gas stations, Chip Mong NORO Mall, Chip Mong Bak Touk, Borey Peng Huoth Boeung Snor, PTT Gas Station & Cafe Amazon near Olympic Stadium, Star Mart at the Bokor traffic light, and at Phsar Toch.

China

  • To protect the environment, China passed the regulation of e-waste recycling in 2008 and implemented it in 2011. China used to accept 70% of the world's e-waste but in 2018 enacted a stricter wide-reaching waste import ban, which included e-waste.

  • China is home to what was once one of the most infamous e-waste recycling locations in the world, Guiyu. In 2012, tens of thousands of informal recyclers in Guiyu processed more than a million tons of e-waste each year, mostly by hand, in ways that were dangerous to workers' health and to the environment. In 2015, the Guiyu Circular Economy Industrial Park opened, aiming to supplant the informal network.

  • To find an e-waste recycling location in China, see the smartphone app Baidu Recycle, a collaboration between The United Nations Development Program and Baidu Big Data Joint Laboratory.

Japan

Malaysia

  • In Malaysia, e-waste is regulated by Code SW110, the Environmental Quality Regulations of 2005. The government banned import of all non-recyclable solid waste in 2018.

  • The E-Waste Management in Malaysia program of the Department of Environment has an e-waste recycling locator.

Philippines

South Korea

  • South Korea does not have a national e-waste mandate but some local governments have launched e-waste recycling programs.

  • Since 2009, the Seoul Metropolitan Government adopted the Urban Mining Project which extract rare metals from discarded electronics collected by district offices or public institutions. Check out the Seoul Resource Center.

  • The Korean Ministry of Environment partners with the Korean Electronics Recycling Cooperative which offers nationwide free collection services. This site provides the following information on how to use the free collection service: "Large electronic appliance wastes (washing machine, refrigerator, air conditioner, etc.): Use the free pick-up collection service. ☎ Call Center (1599-0903), Online (www.15990903.or.kr)" - and says this about recycling small electronics: "in the designated collection box at your local community service center or apartment".

  • The Korea Electronics Recycling Cooperative (KERC), was established to facilitate the effective recycling of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) and operate the national recycling centers. See details of Location and Capacity of Recyclers in Korea.

  • LG Electronics collects e-waste in accordance with the local (WEEE) regulations and requirements around the world. See details of LG Electronics’ Requirements for recycler

Thailand

Taiwan

Latin America E-Waste Laws and Recycling Locators

The requirements for e-waste management in Latin America are relatively new. It is unfortunate to know that no Latin American country exceeds 5% in the recycling of electronic waste generated annually. Only a few countries in the region have specific laws and regulations on the management of electronic waste.

Argentina

Bolivia

Brazil

Brazil is the leader in the production of e-waste in Latin America (and second in the whole American continent) and has national solid waste legislation from 2010, the "Política Nacional de Resíduos Sólidos." It defines the principles, goals and instruments related to the comprehensive and solid waste management (federal district, each federal state and the municipalities have to cooperate with the union in order to implement the established in the law): http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2007-2010/2010/lei/l12305.htm.

According to the Global E-Waste Monitor 2017, Brazil had 1.5 Mt of e-waste with only 3% adequate collection.

There are waste collection companies and waste picker cooperatives working in a non-profit model that also offer e-waste collection. Here just a few of them:

Chile

Colombia

Costa Rica

Ecuador

Mexico

Peru

Uruguay

Middle East E-Waste Laws and Recycling Locators

Iraq

Lebanon

Turkey

  • You can access Turkey’s legislation concerning the issue here.

United Arab Emirates

Africa E-Waste Laws and Recycling Locators

For a long time, Africa was positioned as the "dumping ground" of e-waste, where waste producers from the Global North would send dead electronics, to the detriment of waste picking children. The Ghana scrapyard Agbogbloshie has been demonized in these reports.

However, as African consumers have become more able to purchase new technology, electronics manufacturers have jumped to meet their needs (dominated by Transsion branded smartphones). Today, 50-85% of African e-waste comes from within the continent.

Africa generates 2.9 Mt of e-waste a year and recycles 0.9% of that formally. However, as of 2020, 13 African nations have some sort of national e-waste law. By some estimates, informal recycling and reuse in Africa is more complete than on other continents: As much as 95% of electronic waste in Ghana is collected, mostly informally.

Cameroon

Côte d’Ivoire

  • Ivory Coast supermarket chain Promusa has e-waste deposit stations at all markets.

  • Create Lab has been teaching locals how to repair, reuse, and recycle e-waste in Abidjan.

Egypt

  • In 2021, Egypt ICT and environment ministries launched a program called E-Tadweer, which promotes safe e-waste recycling. The Tadweer apps let users upload a photo of electronics they want to recycle, then automatically recommends local facilities that can recycle the equipment.

Ghana

Kenya

Madagascar

Morocco

Nigeria

  • Okunola Alabi of the Federal University of Technology, Akure, has made a public call for improvement to Nigerian e-waste infrastructure and legislation.

Rwanda

South Africa

Zambia

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