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E - Waste
There are more than 60 electronic companies in Bangladesh; they have been exporting products all over the world since 2000 and their main problem is that there is no proper recycling in the process. Currently in Bangladesh, recycling of disposed electronic products is mainly being handled by the informal sector. E-waste is collected, segregated, dismantled and recycled in Dhaka's urban slums.
The first stage of the value chain includes the generators of electrical waste, which are the households and offices. The next players of the trade value chain are the informal scrap collectors or vangariwala, who buys e-waste directly from the generators. Here the vangariwala either sells it to the second hand market, repairs and sells it again to consumers or secondhand shops, or sells them to the bulk collectors and manual dismantlers. Once they are dismantled, the different components are sent to different places around Dhaka for further processing, recycling and smelting activities. The final step of the value chain is recycling, where precious and special metals are extracted from the component. The manual dismantling and recycling stages include processes like open burning and acid treatment.
E-waste contains around 1000 different chemicals, many of which contain high levels of toxins and hazardous elements. If e-waste is not recycled and disposed of in an environmentally prudent manner, it can pose serious threats to both human health and the environment.
