A country can write a strict waste rule and enforce it inside its own borders. Much e-waste is exported, so the rule and the harm end up under different governments.
A rule in one country, waste in another, and where a digital record can close part of the gap.
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What makes it work
- Labelling it as working second-hand goods makes the export legal, and a share of it genuinely is working.
- Processing properly costs money and exporting earns it, so the incentive runs the wrong way at every step.
- Nobody follows a container to the end, so the paperwork is checked and the destination is not.
- The receiving country gains income from the trade, which makes a simple ban politically hard on both sides.
Who pays: It is stripped by hand and often burnt to recover metal, so the health cost lands on people who never owned the devices and gained nothing from them.
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Real-world examples you can name
Agbogbloshie e-waste site, Accra — scrapyard cleared July 2021
A scrapyard where imported electronics were stripped and cables burned to recover copper, releasing lead and dioxins. It became the standard example of e-waste exported from rich countries to poor ones. Authorities demolished much of the site in 2021; the trade moved rather than stopped.
Who it affected: Workers and nearby residents exposed to heavy metals and smoke.
Global Fishing Watch — launched 2016
Satellite tracking signals from vessels are processed to map fishing activity worldwide and published openly, so protected areas can be policed by anyone with a browser rather than only by patrol boats.
Who it affected: Coastal states without navies, and fleets that relied on not being watched.
The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) — in force since May 2018
A regulation giving people rights over data held about them — to see it, correct it, have it erased and take it elsewhere — and requiring a lawful basis before an organization may process it at all. Fines can reach 4% of a company's worldwide annual turnover.
Who it affected: Everyone in the EU, and any organization anywhere that handles EU residents' data.
| Approach | Can it be enforced? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Ban the export | Weakly | The goods are labelled as working, and nobody follows them |
| Require proof of processing | Better | It attaches a record to each unit rather than a container |
| Make the producer responsible | Best | The manufacturer is the party the exporting country can reach |
How this is tested — HL marks a recommendation on whether it could actually be enforced, and this topic is where that bites hardest. It comes up two ways:
Paper 1 Section B — extended response
- Extended response on waste and responsibility
- Concepts — power, systems — named explicitly
Paper 3 — the intervention paper
- Recommend a measure for a described waste problem
- Justify why it is enforceable, not only why it is right
The trap: the unenforceable ban: A ban on exporting waste is right and nearly unenforceable. Say who your measure reaches and why that party can be reached.
Explain one reason why a national rule on electronic waste may not reduce harm.
Model answer plan
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Recommend one measure to reduce the harm caused by exported electronic waste, and justify it.
Model answer plan
See the mark-by-mark plan — for / against / judgement, with marking guidance — in study mode.