A Comprehensive Review on Hazardous Aspects and Management Strategies of Electronic Waste : Bangladesh and Global Perspectives

Electronic waste (e-waste) is a special form of waste that contains a variety of electronic components e.g., metals, non-metals, plastics, cables, etc. The excessive generation of e-waste has become a major concern in the last few decades. The current global e-waste generation is 57.4 million metric tons (MMT) per year. Asia produces the highest amount of e-waste (24.9 MMT) followed by America, Europe, Africa, and Oceania. In Bangladesh, e-waste produces from two sources: its own consumption of electronic devices and imported e-waste from ship braking yard. About 0.6 MMT of e-waste generated in 2021 from its own consumption of electronic devices and 2.5 MMT of e-waste generated from shipbreaking yards. The e-waste management system has not properly established in developing and underdeveloped countries yet, which causes severe environmental pollution, health impact of humans and animals and economical forfeiture. Adequate knowledge on the present scenario of e-waste and the concerning aspect of this waste is important to develop an efficient e-waste process. In this work, the global and Bangladesh scenario of e-waste along with the hazardous nature of e-waste on aquatic creatures, human health and the environment have been reported. The establishment of e-waste management has been analyzed by the life cycle assessment (LCA) and material flow analysis (MFA) models in this study. The government policies and economic aspects of e-waste have been studied to propose future directions to increase the efficiency of the management of e-waste