Is environmental regulation keeping e-waste under control? Evidence from e-waste exports in the European Union

Sónia Almeida Neves, António Cardoso Marques and Leonardo Batista de Sá Lopes

Ecological Economics, 2024, vol. 216, issue C

Abstract: Waste generated from electrical and electronic equipment, known as e-waste, is increasing worldwide. Developed countries like those in Europe produce the most significant proportion of e-waste worldwide and, therefore, rely on exporting it to other countries for waste disposal. As Europe is transiting towards a Circular Economy and tackling environmental-related problems, there has been an increase in environmental policies and regulations in this area. This paper presents empirical evidence of how European Union regulations have affected the exports of e-waste. Yearly data from 2010 to 2018 for a panel of 18 European Union countries were analysed using the PCSE (Panel-Corrected Standard Error) estimator. In order to measure environmental regulation, Environmental Tax Revenues from the manufacture of computers, electronic, and optical products were selected. The findings of this paper suggest that taxation is ineffective in reducing e-waste exports, with a tax on manufacturers actually increasing them. Also, high dependence and sub-standard e-waste collection systems increase e-waste exportation. Given that countries often depend on foreign raw materials, a sensible approach would be to invest in collection points for e-waste to take economic advantage of this waste's vital elements.

Keywords: E-waste; Circular Economy; Recycling; European Union; Waste Shipment Regulation; Environment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S092180092300294X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:216:y:2024:i:c:s092180092300294x

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2023.108031

Access Statistics for this article

Ecological Economics is currently edited by C. J. Cleveland

More articles in Ecological Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().