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E-Waste Management in the UAE
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1  S P Jain Center of Management, Singapore, Singapore

Published: 04 November 2011 by MDPI in The 1st World Sustainability Forum session Environmental Sustainability
Abstract: In 21st century, electronics have undoubtedly become an integral part of our daily lives. As a result, Electronic Waste (e-waste) or Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) has the dubious distinction of becoming the fastest growing waste type in today\'s economy. Every year, 20 to 50 million tons of e-waste gets accumulated around the world, which is estimated to touch 73 million tons by 2015. In UAE, there are no official statistics about e-waste collection, or how the waste is getting disposed of in landfills. This should be a huge cause for concern for not only environmentalists but also local citizens. With a revived consumer electronic durables market in the UAE, valued at USD 0.85 billion (Q1 2010), the situation of e-waste looks grimmer than ever. UAE has around 4.8 million residents and almost double this number is mobile phone subscribers. Increasing per capita income of the UAE residents has alarmingly contributed to the mindless disposal of electronic waste in this great Emirate nation. Even though the re-cycling industry is in its nascent stage in the UAE, it is slowly gaining momentum. However, there is a huge awareness gap between the e-waste recycling industry and the consumers who generate the said waste. Our study focuses on exploring the behavior of such consumers towards e-waste management and addressing the persistent problems faced by the e-waste recycling industry in the UAE. In our research project, we propose a sustainable working model to bridge the knowledge gap between consumers who generate e-waste and the industry that re-cycles the same e-waste.
Keywords: e-Waste, Sustainability, UAE, WEEE
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