Open Environmental Sciences

2009, 3 : 14-19
Published online 2009 March 24. DOI: 10.2174/1876325100903010014
Publisher ID: TOENVIRJ-3-14

Unsustainable Paradoxes Inherent in the International Legislation of Electronic Waste Disposal

Julian Scott Yeomans and Yavuz Günalay
Operations Management and Information Systems Area, Schulich School of Business, SSB S338, York University, Toronto, ON, M3J 1P3 Canada.

ABSTRACT

New waste management legislation provides a driver for materials recovery, industrial ecology, and remanufacturing practices throughout the global electronics industry. Paradoxically, the resulting regulations are incongruent and unsustainable because the targeted practitioners can neither legally re-use the resultant reclaimed materials nor legally store or dispose of the ensuing wastes.