Published: 23 May 2026
Almost everyone has a dead mobile phone, a defunct keyboard, or an old charger tangled in a forgotten drawer. We hesitate to discard them, quietly convinced they still hold some mysterious financial value. While a single useless device sitting in a cupboard seems completely harmless, multiplying it by the population of Bangladesh reveals a toxic, fast-growing crisis.
Mohammad Shariful Islam Mahi, a representative of the Chattogram City Corporation, hit the nail on the head regarding this habit. "People leave broken mobiles at home," he noted. "A thought works in our heads that it has a financial value, that it cannot simply be thrown away. Where people do not even throw general waste in designated spots, why would they willingly dispose of e-waste there?".
This single psychological barrier reflects a broader national crisis. Mahi was speaking at a stakeholder seminar in Chattogram, where Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) presented its recent research report on e-waste management. Government officials, business leaders, civil society representatives and journalists gathered at the event to discuss the ground realities and practical constraints facing their respective sectors. According to data shared at the event 97 per cent of all electronic waste generated in Bangladesh is handled through the informal sector using highly unsafe, environmentally damaging methods. A paltry 3 per cent sees the inside of a formal, safe recycling facility.
What surfaced throughout the room of policymakers, corporate leaders, and civil society actors was a tale of governance paralysis. Setting the stage for the dialogue, Committee of Concerned Citizens (CCC) Chattogram President Engineer Md Delwar Hossain Majumder noted that the rapid pace of technology has created an ocean of obsolete devices. He explained that informal recycling takes place through highly risky means, causing extreme health risks. He added that the crisis must be treated as a consolidated concern encompassing worker safety, urban management and good governance. Merely formulating policies is not enough; we must bolster institutional capacity to see them through.
Bureaucratic Paralysis and the Data Void
Take the government sector, for instance. Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Assistant Director Aongti Chowdhury pointed out a strange bureaucratic bottleneck. "Government institutions currently use a vast number of computers, laptops, and ACs, but there is no directive from the administration level on how these will be managed," he explained. Because state property cannot simply be destroyed without complex clearances, older devices end up piling up indefinitely. "When we newly joined, we saw a room entirely dedicated to all the old electronic waste," he recalled.
If the government cannot discard a broken printer legally, the private and public sector scenario looks even more chaotic. And measuring the scope of this chaos is practically impossible because no one wants to talk about it. Shakila Jannat, an official of the Chattogram Divisional Statistics Office currently running an environment and waste survey for the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics across 1,843 institutions, laid bare the struggle of data collection. "I visited a large government agency for the survey. When as per questionnaire I asked how many ACs or computers, defunct or working, are there in the office, the authority responded, 'Why should we give you an account of our assets?'" she shared. Over 60 per cent of her respondents flatly admit to lacking an environmental clearance. Without knowing the actual numbers, managing the problem becomes a guessing game.
The anxiety over unwanted electronics stretches right up to the national borders. Saidur Rahman, Assistant Commissioner at Chattogram Custom House, brought up an incoming threat regarding the rise of electric vehicles. While EV adoption looks great for climate targets, it hides a nasty consequence. A typical electric vehicle battery loses efficiency after eight years. If Bangladesh continues to import ten-year-old vehicles, the country effectively transforms into a dumping ground for dead batteries.
The View from the Shipyards: Compliance versus Chaos
Perhaps the most revealing dynamic involves an industry repeatedly blamed for pollution. Whenever industrial hazard is discussed, fingers immediately point to the shipyards on the coast. However, the reality inside the yards paints a drastically different picture than what happens downstream. Ships arrive with built-in electronics, ranging from heavy machinery to hundreds of standard refrigerators and lights.
Liton Majumder, Head of Health, Safety and Environment Operations at PHP Ship Breaking and Recycling Industries, argued that shipbreaking yards compliant with the Hong Kong Convention manage these hazardous components with rigorous precision. However, he acknowledged the need to properly follow Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). "I am a Hazmat expert, so I know whether extracting copper from a cable cover releases Polychlorinated Biphenyls or not. But the vendor taking it? He only has a basic trade license from the City Corporation," Majumder explained. "Training this specific supply chain is an absolute must."
Echoing his words, another ship-breaking industry representative Mohammad Alimuddin from KSRM Group pointed out another glaring institutional failure. For nearly fifteen years, there have been discussions about building a central Treatment, Storage, and Disposal Facility (TSDF) under the Ministry of Industries. "Given the volume of industries in Bangladesh, having just one TSDF is only a starting point, yet we are still waiting," he stated. Without this central facility, shipyards and large producers are forced to hold onto massive quantities of toxic waste within their internal storage indefinitely.
The Human Cost and Grassroots Solutions
The cost of this regulatory vacuum is borne heavily by those at the bottom of the pyramid. Scavengers and scrap dealers dismantle toxic gadgets with bare hands. Addressing this, Mohammad Abdus Sabbir Bhuiyan of the Department of Labour emphasised that these workers are breathing in poisons daily. He noted that under the labour law, there is a dedicated committee for the welfare of waste workers in the informal sectors. ‘The workers of the e-waste management sector can be brought under the supervision of that committee,’ he said and recommended urgently updating the occupational disease list through the National Industrial Health and Safety Council to reflect the unique illnesses triggered by dismantling electronic boards.
Rather than waiting for slow administrative wheels to turn, grassroots initiatives are taking charge. Apurbo Deb from Young Power in Social Action (YPSA) shared their work with informal scrap dealers, treating them not as a nuisance, but as an untapped resource. They are registering these workers, bringing them under mobile banking channels for formal transactions, and enrolling nearly two thousand waste pickers into health insurance schemes.
This is a fight requiring a change in everyday human behaviour, an often painfully slow process for older generations. Sadia Rahman from the non-profit Ghashful mentioned the resistance she frequently encounters. She recounted an incident at an airport where an elderly gentleman became furiously defensive when simply asked not to check in a laptop due to lithium battery risks. Adults, she argued, actively resist changing their habits. The true revolution lies in children. "I was truly surprised when my five-year-old daughter could tell me about WASA just from learning through school activities," she noted, pushing for the mandatory inclusion of e-waste mechanics in primary school curricula.
Transforming Institutional Apathy into Economic Opportunity
It is easy to blame citizens, but what happens when the very architects of the state completely overlook their responsibilities?
Dr Iftekharuzzaman, Executive Director of Transparency International Bangladesh, did not hold back his critique of this institutional negligence. While ordinary citizens are constantly urged to be conscious of their carbon footprints, colossal administrative bodies frequently sidestep basic planning.
"Awareness is certainly necessary, but those who hold responsibility for state governance and institutional duty cannot evade accountability," he stressed. He drew a sharp focus onto the massive stockpile of Electronic Voting Machines recently purchased by the Election Commission. "The purchase of four lakh EVMs was done without any disposal plan. When buying them from the producer, did anyone outline what to do when they become unusable?" he asked. The machines now sit unused, posing an extreme environmental hazard and symbolising a total failure to establish a basic circular supply chain.
The prevailing mindset requires treating the mounting piles of defunct tech not just as a crisis, but as an immense opportunity. Hidden within the plastic shells of dead keyboards and old routers are rare and precious metals. Proper recycling infrastructure could turn hazardous liabilities into valuable financial assets, capturing elements that can be traded globally or reused locally.
As the dialogue concluded, the central mandate was undeniable. Strict regulation, inter-departmental transparency, and an unwavering commitment to holding both importers and public procurement agencies liable for their purchases are non-negotiable. Until the lifecycle of a product is tracked from its arrival to its ultimate destruction, the quiet avalanche waiting inside our homes and office storerooms will only continue to grow.
