IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jresou/v6y2017i2p15-d94164.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Link between e-Waste and GDP—New Insights from Data from the Pan-European Region

Author

Listed:
  • Sigrid Kusch

    (Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, University of Padua, Padua 35131, Italy
    Engineering and the Environment, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK)

  • Colin D. Hills

    (Faculty of Engineering Science, University of Greenwich, Chatham Maritime ME4 4TB, UK)

Abstract

Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) is difficult to sustainably manage. One key issue is the challenge of planning for WEEE flows as current and future quantities of waste are difficult to predict. To address this, WEEE generation and gross domestic product (GDP) data from 50 countries of the pan-European region were assessed. A high economic elasticity was identified, indicating that WEEE and GDP are closely interlinked. More detailed analyses revealed that GDP at purchasing power parity (GDP PPP) is a more meaningful measure when looking at WEEE flows, as a linear dependency between WEEE generation and GDP PPP was identified. This dependency applies to the whole region, regardless of the economic developmental stage of individual countries. In the pan-European region, an increase of 1000 international $ GDP PPP means an additional 0.5 kg WEEE is generated that requires management.

Suggested Citation

  • Sigrid Kusch & Colin D. Hills, 2017. "The Link between e-Waste and GDP—New Insights from Data from the Pan-European Region," Resources, MDPI, vol. 6(2), pages 1-10, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jresou:v:6:y:2017:i:2:p:15-:d:94164
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/6/2/15/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/6/2/15/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Idiano D’Adamo & Paolo Rosa & Sergio Terzi, 2016. "Challenges in Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Management: A Profitability Assessment in Three European Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(7), pages 1-19, July.
    2. Loukia Efthymiou & Amaryllis Mavragani & Konstantinos P. Tsagarakis, 2016. "Quantifying the Effect of Macroeconomic and Social Factors on Illegal E-Waste Trade," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-13, August.
    3. Mohammad Izzat Rasnan & Ahmad Fariz Mohamed & Choo Ta Goh & Kohei Watanabe, 2016. "Sustainable E-Waste Management in Asia: Analysis of Practices in Japan, Taiwan and Malaysia," Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management (JEAPM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 18(04), pages 1-23, December.
    4. Behrens, Arno & Giljum, Stefan & Kovanda, Jan & Niza, Samuel, 2007. "The material basis of the global economy: Worldwide patterns of natural resource extraction and their implications for sustainable resource use policies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 444-453, December.
    5. Heinz Schandl & Graham M. Turner, 2009. "The Dematerialization Potential of the Australian Economy," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 13(6), pages 863-880, December.
    6. Van Eygen, Emile & De Meester, Steven & Tran, Ha Phuong & Dewulf, Jo, 2016. "Resource savings by urban mining: The case of desktop and laptop computers in Belgium," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 53-64.
    7. Cucchiella, Federica & D’Adamo, Idiano & Lenny Koh, S.C. & Rosa, Paolo, 2015. "Recycling of WEEEs: An economic assessment of present and future e-waste streams," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 263-272.
    8. Amit Kumar & Maria Holuszko, 2016. "Electronic Waste and Existing Processing Routes: A Canadian Perspective," Resources, MDPI, vol. 5(4), pages 1-19, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bilal Boubellouta & Sigrid Kusch-Brandt, 2023. "Driving factors of e-waste recycling rate in 30 European countries: new evidence using a panel quantile regression of the EKC hypothesis coupled with the STIRPAT model," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(8), pages 7533-7560, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zeynep Ozsut Bogar & Askiner Gungor, 2023. "Forecasting Waste Mobile Phone (WMP) Quantity and Evaluating the Potential Contribution to the Circular Economy: A Case Study of Turkey," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-38, February.
    2. Ksenija Denčić-Mihajlov & Mladen Krstić & Dejan Spasić, 2020. "Sensitivity Analysis as a Tool in Environmental Policy for Sustainability: The Case of Waste Recycling Projects in the Republic of Serbia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-19, September.
    3. Kostas Bithas & Panos Kalimeris, 2017. "The Material Intensity of Growth: Implications from the Human Scale of Production," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 133(3), pages 1011-1029, September.
    4. Panchal, Rohit & Singh, Anju & Diwan, Hema, 2021. "Economic potential of recycling e-waste in India and its impact on import of materials," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    5. Amit Kumar & Maria Holuszko, 2016. "Electronic Waste and Existing Processing Routes: A Canadian Perspective," Resources, MDPI, vol. 5(4), pages 1-19, November.
    6. Kumar, Amit & Holuszko, Maria & Espinosa, Denise Crocce Romano, 2017. "E-waste: An overview on generation, collection, legislation and recycling practices," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 32-42.
    7. George C. Efthimiou & Panos Kalimeris & Spyros Andronopoulos & John G. Bartzis, 2018. "Statistical Projection of Material Intensity: Evidence from the Global Economy and 107 Countries," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 22(6), pages 1465-1472, December.
    8. Federica Cucchiella & Idiano D’Adamo & Paolo Rosa, 2015. "Industrial Photovoltaic Systems: An Economic Analysis in Non-Subsidized Electricity Markets," Energies, MDPI, vol. 8(11), pages 1-16, November.
    9. Mattia Cottes & Matia Mainardis & Patrizia Simeoni, 2023. "Assessing the Techno-Economic Feasibility of Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment Treatment Plant: A Multi-Decisional Modeling Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(23), pages 1-16, November.
    10. Martinico-Perez, Marianne Faith G. & Schandl, Heinz & Fishman, Tomer & Tanikawa, Hiroki, 2018. "The Socio-Economic Metabolism of an Emerging Economy: Monitoring Progress of Decoupling of Economic Growth and Environmental Pressures in the Philippines," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 155-166.
    11. Razzaq, Asif & Sharif, Arshian & Ozturk, Ilhan & Skare, Marinko, 2022. "Inclusive infrastructure development, green innovation, and sustainable resource management: Evidence from China’s trade-adjusted material footprints," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    12. Zauresh Atakhanova & Peter Howie, 2020. "Metal intensity of use in the era of global value chains," Mineral Economics, Springer;Raw Materials Group (RMG);Luleå University of Technology, vol. 33(1), pages 101-113, July.
    13. Krausmann, Fridolin & Gingrich, Simone & Eisenmenger, Nina & Erb, Karl-Heinz & Haberl, Helmut & Fischer-Kowalski, Marina, 2009. "Growth in global materials use, GDP and population during the 20th century," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(10), pages 2696-2705, August.
    14. Youngho CHANG & Yanfei LI, 2014. "Non-renewable Resources in Asian Economies: Perspective of Availability, Applicability Acceptability, and Affordability," Working Papers DP-2014-04, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA).
    15. Ruth Lane, 2014. "Understanding the Dynamic Character of Value in Recycling Metals from Australia," Resources, MDPI, vol. 3(2), pages 1-16, April.
    16. Ivan Deviatkin & Sanna Rousu & Malahat Ghoreishi & Mohammad Naji Nassajfar & Mika Horttanainen & Ville Leminen, 2022. "Implementation of Circular Economy Strategies within the Electronics Sector: Insights from Finnish Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-11, March.
    17. Horațiu Vermeșan & Ancuța-Elena Tiuc & Marius Purcar, 2019. "Advanced Recovery Techniques for Waste Materials from IT and Telecommunication Equipment Printed Circuit Boards," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-23, December.
    18. Pothen, Frank & Schymura, Michael, 2014. "Bigger cakes with less ingredients? A comparison of material use of the world economy," ZEW Discussion Papers 14-030, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    19. Maria Loredana Nicolescu & Marius Nicolae Jula, 2015. "Analysis Of Household Behaviour To The Collection Of Waste Electrical And Electronic Equipment In Romania," Global Economic Observer, "Nicolae Titulescu" University of Bucharest, Faculty of Economic Sciences;Institute for World Economy of the Romanian Academy, vol. 3(2), pages 19-26, November.
    20. Secinaro, Silvana & Calandra, Davide & Lanzalonga, Federico & Ferraris, Alberto, 2022. "Electric vehicles’ consumer behaviours: Mapping the field and providing a research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 399-416.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jresou:v:6:y:2017:i:2:p:15-:d:94164. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.