Regional E-waste Monitor for the Western Balkans

E-waste constitutes one of the fastest growing streams of physical waste in today’s global environment and athreat to sustainable development. Data and comparable overviews on e-waste are essential in all stages ofthe policy cycle, to evaluate developments over time, to elaborate national and international policies and tolimit e-waste generation, to prevent illegal dumping, to promote recycling, and to create jobs in the recyclingsectors.

However, only a very limited number of countries collect internationally comparable e-waste statistics andcomparable overviews on e-waste management at the regional and national level. Within the framework ofthe Global E-waste Statistics Partnership, this project aims to make an assessment of e-waste statistics, e-waste management practices and the e-waste legislation landscape in the beneficiary countries to producethe Regional E-waste Monitor report for the Western Balkans.

The project will be jointly implemented by UNEP Europe Office, UNEP Vienna Office and ITU, in close cooperation with UNITAR-SCYCLE1 and with the respective governments and statistical offices of the participating countries.

The project helped beneficiary countries formulate green, sustainable, and evidence-based digitalization policies, focusing on e-waste management. It produced regional and nationally comparable e-waste statistics for five Western Balkan countries using the UN Partnership for Measuring ICT for Development approach, making the data internationally comparable.