(World Bank, 2015)
The rising amount of E-waste is tightly linked to rising incomes. As more people earn higher incomes, they are enabled to buy and constantly replace their pre-existing electronic devices and appliances. Within South-East Asia, Singapore has the highest GDP per capita. We also have the highest E-waste generated per capita. On the other hand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and the Philippines the lowest e-waste generators per capita in 2015 (Honda, Khetriwal, & Kuehr, 2017).
According to Egrlich and Holdren’s (1971) model, I = P x A x T, affluence is one of the factors that determines the total impact of human activity on the environment. Developed countries usually have a higher GDP per capita.
Even though developed countries encompass 22% of the world’s population, they expend approximately 88% of natural resources and 73% of energy resources yearly (Gardner & Stern, 1996).
As the world progresses, affluence levels in many other countries are also going up. Within the South-East Asian region, there are many industrializing countries with a growing amount of people from middle classes who are able to afford more gadgets.
Increasing demand also means that there is a need to provide a greater supply of electronic products. They can either be new and second-hand, but nonetheless would also increase e-waste when they are discarded. As we vote with our wallets, it signals to companies that they should come up with faster, newer, and better products to capture more of our wealth.
As we can see, the growing E-waste problem is exacerbated by both the companies’ desire for increasing financial gains, and our consumption related mindset.