Summary

E-waste is one of the emerging and fast growing waste streams with vivid and complex characteristics. Rapid technological innovation and the drastic shortening of product lifespan are among the major contributing to this growing amount of e-waste. Despite major policies in place by various countries regarding collecting and processing of e-waste in professional treatment facilities, the efforts, the collection and the state of art facilities dedicated solely for this purpose is limited and majority of small nations have not yet developed such a system of e-waste management system. Further adding on to the crisis, some of the world’s e-waste is being shipped to very great distances to smaller and developing countries where crude, inefficient and backyard techniques are being used to extract material components which not only possess a harm to the local natural environment but also the people working in the factories. Global trading of these electronic parts and their substandard recycling has led to environmental catastrophes like the Guiyu in China and Agbogbloshie in Ghana.

According to the research report, "Global E-Waste Management Market Overview, 2023-28" published by Bonafide Research, the market is anticipated to reach market size of USD 122.48 Billion by 2028, increasing from USD 60.27 Billion in 2022. Further, the market is projected to grow with 12.82% CAGR for 2023-28. The development of shredding machines and the rise of industrial recyclers will be primary factors for the e-waste management market growth. One of the major tasks in recycling electronic devices is the complex structure of components where components had to be dismantled and separated manually. Manufacturers have developed shredders, specifically for managing e-waste with abilities to identify and sort ferrous and non-ferrous scrap metals. This development has helped in discarding additional amounts of e-waste and in ensuring faster disposal compared to the manual dismantling of components. Moreover, with workers being exposed to hazardous substances and the possibility of suffering from cuts during dismantling, e-waste shredders with automated sorting and dismantling technology have assisted in creating a safe working environment. Moreover, the imposition of stringent e-waste regulations has also paved the way for the emergence of small and large recyclers specializing in e-waste management. These recycling facilities house automated machines such as metal-separating machines that make recycling more efficient and profitable using technologies such as optical sensors.

The rising importance of e-waste recycling is one of the major trends that will gain traction in the e-waste management market during the next four years. The growing middle-income population in developing countries and the changing consumer behaviour result in the fast replacement of electronic devices. The electronic device manufacturers follow sustainable development and disposal practices to manage devices at their end-of-life period. Companies such as Dell, Microsoft, HP, Panasonic, and Fuji Xerox have already introduced programs by partnering with recycling firms to organize large take-back programs to recycle out-dated equipment and manage their e-waste. They also concentrate on designing devices to make the dismantling and replacement of components easy. E-waste contains special and precious metals including silver, gold, palladium, platinum, indium, and gallium. These scarce elements are widely used in production of consumer electronics and IT & communication devices. Due to scarcity of these metals, prices associated with their products are also high. This has increased the need to reuse, refurbish, and recycle devices made from metals. Thus, these issues certainly force manufacturers of electronic devices to look for raw materials available from recycled e-waste. This also benefits nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and certainly help reduce hazards of global warming.
Furthermore, widening base of middle-income population in developing economies and shifting consumer preferences are resulting in rapid replacement of older versions of an electronic product with a newer version. This, in turn, is boosting the sales of electronic devices. Moreover, electronic device manufacturers follow sustainable disposal practices in order to adequately manage electronic devices at their end-of-life period, such as take-back policy. Such factors are anticipated to work in favor of the market during the forecast period.

Factors Supporting the E-Waste Management Market Growth With fast rising product innovation, notably in household electronics and appliances like the switch from analogue to digital technologies, monitors, and flat-screen televisions, the e-waste management market is predicted to experience revenue growth. In the next four years, managing e-waste is expected to increase by over 33%, according to the UN. There are now more prospects for the e-waste management sector to flourish thanks to partnerships between top manufacturers like Dell, HP, and Cisco from Japan, China, and England and international groups like ‘Solving the E-waste Problem (StEP)’. The market for e-waste management is projected to experience revenue development due to an increase in the number of refrigerator sets being discarded from domestic appliances.

Governments and industry regulators need to adopt effective strategies to encourage re-use, refurbishing, or recycling e-waste in dedicated facilities to prevent environmental contamination and human health risks. The Basel Action Network (BAN) has set some guidelines and policies aimed to ensure that e-waste is dealt with in an eco-friendly manner, reducing the incidence of toxic waste trade around the world. Additionally, the ‘EU Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EU WEEE) directive imposes collection, recovery, and recycling targets on all its member countries. All member countries have adapted these targets and guidelines in their regional policies to facilitate the effective management of electronic waste.

The global e-waste management market share was dominated by the metal segment in 2022, and is expected to maintain its dominance in the upcoming years. As electronic scrap has increased over the past decade due to revolutionary changes in electric and electronic sector, incineration and recycling of these materials have gained high traction. Moreover, increase in health hazards such as kidney damage, bronchitis, and other diseases, owing to scarce discharge of toxic materials from incineration and scrap has increased need for efficient scrap management techniques. Aforementioned factors are expected to drive growth of the segment in the global market during the forecast period. On the other hand, the plastics segment is anticipated to grow at a high CAGR during the forecast period. This can be attributed to an increase in the use of plastic in a variety of electric appliances, such as food processors, laptops, kettles, lawn mowers, and telephones. Despite numerous technological advancements, the inclusion of flame retardants significantly hinders the recycling of plastic from electronic waste. One of the key factors fuelling the expansion of the plastic category in the global e-waste management market is the expanding development of e-waste management programmes, particularly in developing nations.

The global e-waste management market was dominated by the household appliances segment in 2022, and is expected to maintain its dominance in the upcoming years. Household appliances constitute a major part of the e-waste across the world. This has generated need to formulate effective policies to manage tremendous volume of e-waste. Several countries have mandated manufacturers and importers to take-back electronic products for end-of-life management. Manufacturers can sell electronic scrap for reuse or forward it to other companies for recycling. For instance, in Japan under Home Appliances Recycling Law, consumers of appliances such as refrigerators, air conditioners, and washing machines have to forward them to retailers to send them to companies. These policies are creating conducive environment for recycling e-waste.

The disposal of e-waste is carried out through three procedures, including landfilling, reusing, and incineration. However, both landfilling and incineration are observed to have a negative impact on the environment as well as human health to a large extent. Reuse, on the other hand, is an economical and sustainable method to reduce e-waste generation globally. Furthermore, recycling is likely to register a substantial CAGR during the same period owing to global awareness programs undertaken by various governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that focus on the effective collection, treatment, and recycling of e-waste. Moreover, companies such as Microsoft, Dell, HP, and Panasonic Corporation have already introduced initiatives by connecting with recycling companies to organize large take-back programs in order to recycle or reuse obsolete equipment.

Covid-19 Impacts:
The COVID-19 pandemic affected social lives in multiple ways and highlighted the interrelations between the environmental and communal systems of the world. The measures are taken to control the spread of the virus across society, including lockdowns and halt in manufacturing as well as trade activities, which led to a decline in economic growth, limitations on mobility, and additional need for digitization and quarantine in homes. It was expected that digitization and increase in time spent at home would increase the consumption of electrical and electronic equipment as a result of switching of firms and businesses to home offices, providing the staff with laptops and other office gear for home use, and a simultaneous increase in disposal of such gear and gadgets, partly as a result of house-cleaning during the first lockdowns in 2020. However, statistics exhibited a surprising development from a global perspective.

Recent Developments:
• In 2022, TES, an IT Asset Disposal and e-waste firm, has traded its European trade operations concerned with the recycling of e-scrap which is controlled by extended manufacturer responsibility program.
• July 2022 – ERI, one of the leading recyclers of electronics and cybersecurity intensive hardware destruction companies, and Redrock Environmental Group teamed with the County of Madera. This collaboration is planned to provide the residents of Madera County with an appropriate way to recycle undesirable consumer electronics correctly.
• April 2022 – ERI partnered with Call2Recycle and CellBlock FCS for an Innovative Battery Collection Solution, OneDrum. OneDrum permits customers to place and transport huge volumes of consumer single-use and rechargeable batteries in one suitable container, eliminating the necessity to categorize it by chemistry or separately bag the battery terminals.
• In 2021, Unicore launched CE-WASTE, a 2.5-year project funded by the EU’s research and innovation program. One of the project's first stages is to identify the sorts of waste streams that included high concentrations of CRMs and investigate whether they could be recovered and recycled using present methods.
• January 12, 2021; the article published in Accesswire briefed that the leading ECER is urging other businesses, governments, schools and hospitals to adapt three E-Waste resolutions in 2021: 1. To conduct an audit to identify disposable and recyclable electronics items, 2. Ask employees to conduct audit for their home & office and 3. Choose righteous E-Waste partner.
• January 13, 2021; In order to encourage about practicing proper disposal of battery operating devices and electronics items and also assisting environmental protection acts, Globe sets up 100 collection points for E-Waste disposal. The company is also aiming to expand the points to other Globe stores in coming months for easy participation of public and other organizations.
• In July 2021, Umicore and ENGIE, France, inked a long-term corporate power purchase agreement (PPA) to deliver renewable electricity to Umicore's greenfield project in Nysa, Poland. It will be Europe's first plant to create cathode materials and essential components of rechargeable Li-ion batteries used in electric vehicles.

Major Companies present in the market:
Enviro-Hub Holdings Ltd, Sensoneo, Sims Lifecycle Services, Inc., Big Belly Solar, LLC., Waste Management Inc, Electronic Recyclers International, Inc., Sembcorp Industries Ltd, Veolia Environment SA., UMICORE SA and TES-AMM., Tetronics (International) Limited

Considered in this report
• Geography: Global
• Historic year: 2017
• Base year: 2022
• Estimated year: 2023
• Forecast year: 2028

Aspects covered in this report
• Global E-Waste Management market with its value and forecast along with its segments
• Region-wise E-Waste Management market analysis
• Various drivers and challenges
• On-going trends and developments
• Top profiled companies
• Strategic recommendation

Regions covered in the report:
• North America
• Europe
• Asia-Pacific
• South America, Middle East & Africa

By Source Type:
• Household Appliances (Air conditioners, dishwashers, clothes dryers, drying cabinets, freezers, refrigerators, kitchen stoves, water heaters, washing machines, trash compactors, microwave ovens, and induction cookers, etc.)
• Consumer Electronics (Mobile Devices, Wearables, TVs, Set Top Boxes, Monitors, Laptops, Tablets, Computers, Printers, Scanners, etc.)
• Industrial Electronics (IT & Telecom Equipment, IT Accessories, PCBs, Digital Boards, Datacentres, Medical Equipment and Accessories, etc.)
• Others

By Material Type:
• Metal
• Plastic
• Glass
• Others

By Application Type:
• Trashed
• Recycled

By Element Type:
• Iron
• Copper
• Gold
• Aluminium
• Palladium
• Cobalt
• Antimony
• Silver
• Others (Rhodium, Osmium, Platinum, Indium, Iridium, Ruthenium, Bismuth, Germanium, Etc.)

The approach of the report:
This report consists of a combined approach of primary and secondary research. Secondary research was initially used to gain an understanding of the market and list the companies that are present in it. The secondary research consists of third-party sources such as press releases and annual reports of companies, as well as government-generated reports and databases. After gathering the data from secondary sources, primary research was conducted by conducting telephonic interviews with the leading players about how the market is functioning and then conducting trade calls with dealers and distributors of the market. Following this, we began making primary calls to consumers, segmenting them equally into regional aspects, tier aspects, age groups, and gender. Once we had primary data with us, we started verifying the details obtained from secondary sources.

Intended audience:
This report can be useful to industry consultants, manufacturers, suppliers, associations and organisations related to the E-Waste Management industry, government bodies, and other stakeholders to align their market-centric strategies. In addition to marketing and presentations, it will also increase competitive knowledge about the industry.

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