Bytesforall Bangladesh’s latest work on the mounting issue of e-waste in Bangladesh has been published at the Global Information Society Watch (GISW) report. This groundbreaking edition of GISW has been launched recently and contains 46 country and regional reports along with a powerful series of thematic reports that explore the constructive role that technology can play in confronting environmental and climate crises and disrupts the normative understanding of technology being an easy panacea to the planet’s environmental challenges.
Electronic waste, or e-waste, is a big challenge for Bangladesh, not only because of its sheer volume that remains untreated, but also because of a lack of a policy framework and best practices that could make dismantling, processing and recycling of the waste an asset rather than a public health disaster. Bytesforall Bangladesh worked on this issue for GISWatch back in 2010, and then as part of a larger research study on ICT and environmental sustainability back in 2011. Both the studies identified a systematic gap of policies, including ones on e‑waste management in Bangladesh. This report evolves from there, takes stock of developments both in the space of policy and practices, scans the environment and builds up the evidence and rationale for a greener approach to e‑waste management in Bangladesh.