E-waste: Advancing Circularity and Assessing the Human Health Impact

Electronic Waste (E-waste) is a growing concern in the United States and across the world as the global demand for technology increases. Technology is becoming obsolete faster than ever, and as a result, mounting E-waste has become a management problem. A prominent issue surrounding E-waste is that many of the processing units contain valuable elements, but the extraction process involves exposure to other hazardous elements such as Mercury, Cadmium, and Lead. In 1992, the Basel Convention was ratified in many countries to limit the transboundary movement of E-waste, but the United States did not ratify it. As a result, the United States continues to export E-waste to the developing world (i.e. China, India, Ghana) and this poses a potential human-health risk to both adults and children working at these often illegal recycling facilities. There are many questions that can be raised about E-waste, specifically if there are proven results on if exposure to its components directly causes human-health impacts, and whether the United States should adopt a federal policy surrounding its regulation. There are many methods of take-back policies that have been suggested, such as Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), pooled takeback, and third-party takeback, all of which have circularity in mind. Because the United States does not have a universal policy implementing any of these methods, I will analyze which take-back policies may be effective in reducing the transboundary movement of E-waste and effectively limiting the amount of E-waste in landfills.