Aitizaz Hassan ISLAMABAD, April 14 (INP-WealthPK): Pakistan can recycle 98% of its electronic waste and 2% can be reused to boost circular economy, according to a report of Asian Development Bank (ADB). The report titled “Solid Waste Management Sector in Pakistan: A Reform Roadmap for Policymakers” mentions that 1.68 kilograms per capita per year of e-waste or electrical and electronic equipment waste (WEEE) is generated in Pakistan, which is 2% of the country’s municipal waste total. The report says that Pakistan receives a large amount of e-waste in various forms, less than 2% of which can be reused, and the unused material is recycled informally by workers, including women and children, without safety precautions. An increasingly significant contribution of e-waste to health and environment concerns cannot be doubted. Formal recycling sites, similar to those in China and India, must be developed in Pakistan to protect laborers and the environment, and health awareness programs should be carried out. “To reduce the burden on collection services and formalize the recycling activity, a system of separation at source may be developed for dry recyclables (paper/cardboard, plastics, metals/cans, glass) and possibly other priority waste streams like electrical/electronic waste,” says the ADB report. Pakistan is not only a user of products that end up as electrical and electronic waste, but also a WEEE importer. E-waste is becoming a most rapidly expanding solid waste stream of the world. Pakistan receives thousands of tons of e-waste from developed countries and regions like the US and Europe. At present, quantification of e-waste imported to Pakistan and materials recovered from such waste is not well defined. According to an academic research, 95,415 tons of e-waste is imported into Pakistan annually. There is a pressing need for aggressive measures to implement the 3R hierarchy of waste management (reduce, reuse, recycle), emphasizing the circular economy framework. The ADB report says that e-waste category and the business process must be regulated with specific policy, legislative, and regulatory mechanisms like those in India’s E-waste (Management and Handling Rules 2010 (MOEFCC, India, 2011). More specifically, there is a need to develop an action plan for the effective disposal of e-waste in Pakistan through handling and dismantling procedures at various levels of the government, public awareness raising, e-waste categorization at the municipal level, and safe disposal of e-waste by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), which understand best how parts can be reused. Recently, the Government of Pakistan has signed an agreement with Russian IT firm Skolkovo Foundation. It is Russia’s principal agency for development and commercialization of advanced technologies. The Skolkovo Foundation and Special Technology Zones Authority (STZA) intend to cooperate in developing innovation centers and establishing research and development institutes across Pakistan to achieve technological advancements, especially in the areas of circular economy, low carbon development projects, clean energy, and digital transformation.