Administrative and Legislative Scrutiny of Existing Computer Waste Management Practices in Pakistan

Abstract

Electronic-waste (E-waste) management is one of the global emerging issues. The current study has been carried out to evaluate the existing computer waste management (CWM) in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Pakistan. Study focuses on managerial gap analysis and determination of potential occupational impacts from current CWM practices. System observation and waste quantification are the tools used in field, while interviews and questionnaire based surveys were also conducted. The results reveal that approximately 624.15 tons of computer waste (CW) is generated in the twin cities per year. Approximately 825kg of monitors and 1125kg of CPUs wastes are generated in Twin cities per day. Associated authorities like CDA, Ministry of Climate Change and EPA were interviewed for legal compliance. There is the lack of rules implementation on E-waste management. However, legislations made by concerned authorities exist in the country but are not practically enforced. Further concerns observed during the study include lack of using basic PPEs and employing child labor in their adolescence. Implementation of existing laws along with basic occupational health and safety rules in the system may play a better role to attenuate the load of waste from the very important cities of Pakistan