Raising Global Standards Hazardous Substances and E-Waste Management in the European Union

Henrik Selin, Assistant Professor Boston University, and Stacy VanDeveer, Associate Professor University of New Hampshire

1/05/2008
(Original Publish Date: 12/1/2006)

As a result of expanding international production and trade, a con- sumer in Berlin, Boston, Beijing, or Bangalore can choose between many similar manufactured goods in her local store. For example, she can purchase a cell phone, laptop, freezer, stove, or vacuum cleaner made by a large multinational company that is a household name around the world. Similarly, environmental activists in San Francisco, Shanghai, Surat, and Stockholm might share a growing concern about the ecological and human health risks posed by discarded electronic and electrical products—so-called e-waste. In fact, societies around the world are struggling with growing levels of e-waste, which con- tains myriad hazardous substances that present significant environmental and human health problems.