Electronic Waste Trafficking

The illegal export of electronic waste, or e-waste, from wealthier countries to developing nations for informal, often hazardous processing, frequently disguised as shipments of functional secondhand equipment to evade regulation. The Basel Convention, adopted in March 1989, is the primary global treaty regulating the transboundary movement of hazardous waste, though the United States has never ratified it or its later Ban Amendment, leaving a significant enforcement gap; the Basel Action Network has estimated that about eighty percent of electronic waste directed to recycling in the United States is never recycled domestically but is instead shipped abroad to countries such as China, a figure disputed by the Environmental Protection Agency and industry groups. E-waste flows disproportionately to countries including China, India, Ghana, notably the Agbogbloshie site, Malaysia, Kenya, Nigeria and the Philippines. A 2024 United Nations Environment Programme report found substantial gaps in enforcement among Basel Convention parties: twenty seven parties failed to submit compliance reports between 2018 and 2022, only sixty eight of one hundred twenty six parties had clearly defined illegal traffic in their own law, and while sixty six parties had implemented hazardous waste take-back provisions, only fifty two had criminalized trafficking outright.