Comment: Our hidden e-waste fortune

LAHORE: E-waste should not be seen merely as discarded junk; it is a 21st-century urban mine containing copper, gold, palladium and rare earth elements that power modern technologies. With the right policies, Pakistan can turn its mounting e-waste into an economic win.

Every year, as the world marks International E-Waste Day on October 14, policymakers and citizens are reminded that the growing pile of discarded electronics is not just a waste problem, it is also a lost economic opportunity. The latest Global E-Waste Monitor 2024 reveals that in 2022, global e-waste contained an estimated $91 billion worth of recoverable metals, yet only $28 billion of that value was recovered.

For Pakistan, where digital penetration and consumer electronics imports are rising sharply, e-waste is fast emerging as both an environmental challenge and a potential source of valuable raw materials.

According to academic studies and environmental reports, Pakistan currently generates between 1.9 million and 2.3 million tonnes of e-waste annually, including both locally discarded electronics and imported used goods. This makes Pakistan one of the top 10 e-waste producers in Asia. The figure has more than doubled from roughly 0.8 million tonnes in 2010, reflecting the country’s fast-growing consumer base, urbanisation and shorter replacement cycles for mobile phones, appliances and IT equipment.

While official data remains fragmented, a 2018-19 study by Victoria University in Australia estimated Pakistan’s domestic e-waste generation at 1.79 million tonnes, with an additional 0.1 million tonnes imported, largely from developed countries. Only about 9.0 per cent of this waste is recycled — almost entirely through the informal sector — while around 66 per cent is resold or reused domestically. The rest ends up in landfills or remains stored in homes and warehouses.

Despite these inefficiencies, Pakistan’s e-waste still represents a massive untapped resource. Using global averages from the UN report — roughly $3,000 to $3,500 worth of recoverable metals per tonne each year could be in the range of $5.5 billion to $7.5 billion. Even recovering just a quarter of this value through formal recycling systems could inject over $1.5 billion annually into the economy.

At present, the recycling ecosystem remains dominated by small workshops in Karachi, Lahore and Gujranwala, where workers manually dismantle computers and circuit boards to extract metals. These informal recyclers contribute significantly to metal recovery but often operate without safety measures, exposing workers to toxic substances such as lead, mercury, and cadmium.

With appropriate investment in recycling plants, collection systems and environmental safeguards, Pakistan could convert what is now an ecological hazard into an exportable commodity. The exact estimate of e-waste in Pakistan is not possible because of the informal nature of its use but experts estimate that in 2020 the value of 1.8 million tonne e-waste was $5-6 billion that increased in 2025 to $6.5 to7.5 billion as the estimated e-waste increased to 2.3 million ton. Experts estimate that by 2030 the quantity of e-waste would increase to 3.2 million worth $9-10.5 billion

Countries like China and India are already demonstrating that formalized e-waste recovery can be both profitable and sustainable. India, for instance, formally processes about 25 percent of its e-waste through licensed recyclers and has created a framework that requires producers to take responsibility for end-of-life products. Pakistan, by contrast, has yet to implement a nationwide extended producer responsibility (EPR) mechanism or establish a centralized e-waste registry, despite signing international conventions that promote responsible waste handling.

The Ministry of Climate Change has announced plans for a national e-waste policy, but progress remains slow. Without an institutional framework, Pakistan risks missing out on what could become a multi-billion-dollar green industry. Formal recycling plants equipped with environmentally sound technologies could recover precious metals, plastics and glass — all of which can be reused in local manufacturing or exported for foreign exchange earnings.