Emerging Challenges of E-Waste Management: Serious Threats to Environmental Safety
Zorawar Singh
2025/01/01
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.14584849
ABSTRACT
Electronic waste (e-waste) has become a major environmental issue due to its hazardous contents, such as toxic substances like Mercury, Brominated Flame Retardants (BFRs), and Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs), which pose significant risks to human health and ecosystems. The rapid pace of technological advancement and the increasing consumption of electronic devices have caused a substantial surge in e-waste generation. In 2019, global e-waste production reached 53.6 million metric tons, with projections suggesting it will double by 2050. High-income countries have made strides in developing policies and infrastructure for e-waste recycling; however, a significant portion of this waste is exported to low-income countries, where improper processing methods lead to serious environmental and health hazards. Although recycling e-waste has substantial economic value, with raw material recovery potentially worth $57 billion, only 17.4% of global e-waste was properly recycled in 2019, emphasizing the urgent need for improved management strategies and international cooperation to address this growing issue.
AUTHOR AFFILIATIONS
Department of Zoology, Khalsa College Amritsar, Amritsar, Punjab, India- 143001
CITATION
Singh Z (2025) Emerging Challenges of E-Waste Management: Serious Threats to Environmental Safety. Environmental Science Archives 4(1): 1-6.
REFERENCES
Chen A and Wei Y (2020) E-waste and its toxic elements: A global issue. Science of the Total Environment 722: 137945.
Cornelis P, Balde V, Forti V, Gray V, Kuehr R and Stegmann P (2017) The Global E-waste Monitor 2017: Quantities, Flows and Resources.
da Silva D, Ferreira AC, Olivieri AC and Rodrigues Pereira-Filho E (2024) Electronic waste analysis using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF): Critical evaluation of data fusion for the determination of Al, Cu, and Fe. Analytica Chimica Acta doi: 10.1016/j.aca.2024.342522.
E-waste: Application ethics towards reutilizations (2023) Advances in Waste Management doi: 10.1016/b978-0-323-90909-9.00003-4.
European Environment Agency (2019) The impact of electronic waste on environmental and human health: A comprehensive review. EEA Report No 10/2019.
Ghimire H and Ariya PA (2020) E-wastes: Bridging the knowledge gaps in global production budgets, composition, recycling and sustainability implications, Sustainability Chemistry 10(1): 12.
Global E-Waste Statistics Partnership (2020) The Global E-Waste Monitor 2020. United Nations University, International Telecommunication Union & International Solid Waste Association.
Hassan NE (2023) A Comparative Investigation of Rain Water Quality Parameters Between Natural and Industrial Areas in Duhok Governorate, Kurdistan Region-Iraq. Environ Sci Arch 2(2):131-140.
Johnson PA and Balasubramanian K (2021) Environmental and health risks of e-waste processing in informal settings. Environmental International 146: 106181.
Kaushik V (2018) E-waste and its management. International Journal for Research in Applied Science and Engineering Technology doi: 10.22214/ijraset.2018.6031.
Kumar A, Holuszko ME, Crocce D and Espinosa R (2017) E-waste: An overview on generation, collection, legislation and recycling practices. Resources, Conservation and Recycling doi: 10.1016/j.resconrec.2017.01.018.
Kumar V and Singh R (2022) Hazardous heavy metals in e-waste: Environmental contaminants and human health implications. Environmental Toxicology and Pharmacology 82: 103594.
Mahajan S (2023) E-Vehicles and Effects of their Chemical Constituents on Different Organisms. Environ Sci Arch 2(2):97-113.
Mehra S and Chadha P (2023) Molecular Biomarkers as Key Factors to Evaluate the Extent of Industrial Pollution Exposure. Environ Sci Arch 2(STI-2):18-22.
Pandiarajan A, Shanmugaselvan R and Dheenadayalan MS (2023) Environmental Monitoring of Bore Water Quality at Selected Locations in Kottapatti Village. Environ Sci Arch 2(1): 59-64. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7569182
Sarvaiya UP, Bhatt A, and Yadav KD (2023) A review of the Indian scenario of e-waste management: Generation, effect, and material recovery method in E-Waste: Environmental and Health Impacts. Springer, pp. 123–145.
Singh Z (2022) Microplastics are everywhere. Environ Sci Arch 1(1):1-3. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7133067
Sinha A and Jha A (2019) E-waste recycling and environmental impacts in India. Waste Management 92: 1–9.
Sonawane B, Kadry AM and Kancherla J (2023) Electronic waste: Human health and environmental risk. Patty’s Toxicology, Wiley doi: 10.1002/0471125474.tox163.
Tayal P, Mandal S, Pandey P and Verma NK (2023) Impact of Microplastic Pollution on Human Health. Environ Sci Arch 2(2): 195-204. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.8311591
UNEP (2018) E-waste in Asia: A review of the current situation. United Nations Environment Programme.
Van Yken J, Boxall NJ, Cheng KY, Nikoloski AN, Moheimani R and Kaksonen AH (2021) E-waste recycling and resource recovery: A review on technologies, barriers and enablers with a focus on Oceania. Metals 11(8): 1313.
Wasim A, Bagwan A and Ayub (2023) Electronic waste (e-waste) generation and management scenario of India, and ARIMA forecasting of e-waste processing capacity of Maharashtra state till 2030. Waste Management doi: 10.1016/j.wmb.2023.08.002.
Wright JM and Schulz KL (2021) Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and their impact on ecosystem health. Environmental Toxicology 36(5): 583–590.
License: Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third-party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. Visit for more details http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.