Review of E-waste Related Activities in the Pacific Islands

The problem of e-waste is an emerging one, in that electronic materials imported and used take some years to feed into the waste stream. With the Pacific Islands typically lagging somewhat in the technical revolution of the last two decades, the issue has only really reached the agenda of waste management agencies in the last five years or so

This review analyses the e-waste situation in 14 Pacific Island nations. It starts with a brief history of efforts to deal with the problem of e-waste in the region, providing some context for the subsequent country sections, which form the body of the report. A set of brief recommendations for each country is included at the end of each section. 

This review suggests three classes of recommendations: 

• Support to those countries that have collected e-waste and now have shipment ready for export, as envisaged under their respective PacWaste (Pacific Hazardous Waste) agreements
• Some who need support to set up collection and processing systems, but which enough is known about the general state of affairs
• A set of Pacific Island countries still need to have baseline study work conducted, on the ground, to determine what is the state of affairs with regard to e-waste in their country, including potential quantities, who are the institutional and commercial counterparts, where markets might lie, etc.