For the first time since 2019, the IEMN or International E-Waste Management Network held an in-person annual meeting in conjunction with the 2023 combined E-Reuse/E-Scrap conference in New Orleans. As the IEMN Secretariate, SERI would like to thank all who participated, as well as those who contributed their time and talents to make this a very successful event! The IEMN is a community built specifically to give regulators around the world who are dealing with the e-waste challenge a platform to share and learn from one another. In addition to webinars and presentations throughout the year, an annual meeting gives participants a great opportunity to further their national e-waste initiatives.

Join the IEMN team for a summary presentation and introduction to the International E-Waste Management Network.

IEMN was established in 2011 by the US Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) and the Environmental Protection Administration Taiwan (EPAT) under the auspices of the environmental agreement between the American Institute in Taiwan and the Taipei Economic & Cultural Representative Office; which was first signed in 1993.

The mission of the International E-Waste Management Network is to share best practices and experiences based on a circular economy approach that reduces the negative impact of electronic waste on public health and the environment while promoting positive socio-economic outcomes.

Coinciding with the Sixteenth meeting of the Conference of Parties to the Basel Convention in May 2023, this webinar featured speakers with a deep understanding of the topic who offered their perspectives on the history and future of the Basel Convention. Speakers included: Rick Goss, Founder & Principal of Green Cognition, Liabeth Yohannes, International Branch Office of Resource Conservation & Recovery from the U.S. EPA Office of Land and Emergency Management, Geri-Geronimo R. Sanez, Chief, Hazardous Waste Management Section Environmental Quality Management Division of the Environmental Management Bureau of the Philippines, and Alexander Batteiger, Advisor to the GIZ global advisory project on sustainable waste management and circular economy.
Each speaker provided introductory remarks and participated in a facilitated discussion and then addressed questions from the audience.

IEMN Accelerating Net-Zero Emissions through E-waste Management

With the collaboration of the Taiwan and US EPAs, the International E-waste Management Network held a virtual meeting on September 23 to explore on the possibility of achieving net-zero emissions through e-waste management, and showcase leading Taiwanese industries that have made significant achievement in realizing net-zero emissions. Furthermore, the event provided an opportunity for IEMN member countries to share their country’s latest implementation update on e-waste management. More than 180 participants from 28 different countries registered to participate in the half-day virtual event.

The event keynote addressed the potential contribution to net-zero through the proper recycling of e-waste to reclaim essential resources, such as aluminum, copper, gold, and plastic. It is estimated that by 2040, the electronics industry could account for 14% of total GHG emission. The event also invited a Taiwan recycling industry to share its IT-PCR plastic recycling process. Plastic is widely used in electronic products, and it accounts for a majority of the material used for production. By recycling plastic and put it back into production, it can reduce over 74% GHG emission, compare with virgin plastic material. In the last session of the event, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Philippines, Tuvalu and the US shared the latest status of e-waste management implementation in their country.

ABOUT IEMN:

The IEMN is an international group of partners who are working together to build global capacity for the environmentally sound management of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) and promoting a circular economy for electronics. Sustainable Electronics Recycling International (SERI), a collaborative nonprofit organization focused on used and end‐of‐life electronics, is serving as the coordinator of the network and the Steering Committee to help guide the work of the IEMN. To learn more about IEMN please visit our website www.iemn.comingsoon.website. The IEMN operates as part of the International Environmental Partnership (IEP), a partnership between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration that promotes effective environmental management approaches and technologies on several focused topics around the world.

On June 8, 2022, the International E-waste Management Network (IEMN) hosted a full day of thought-provoking discussions around circular economy approaches for the sustainable management of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE or e-waste) for regulators and policy makers around the world. More than 100 attendees from 33 different countries registered to participate in the event in real time, and the recorded sessions are also available to registered participants of the IEMN community.

The 2022 IEMN annual meeting included presentations from 13 speakers from a wide range of public and private sector organizations, research institutes, and academia including Best Buy, Dell, Samsung, the Rochester Institute of Technology, Yale, and University of Minnesota among others. Sessions focused on various approaches taken to improve e-waste collections and grow circular economy approaches, as well as to expand materials for the next generation of products.

Attendees were also taken on virtual facility tours of the TES Battery Recycling Facility in Singapore and Sims Lifecycle Services Recycling Center in La Vergne, Tennessee. The TES Battery Recycling Facility focuses on lithium ion and electric vehicle (EV) batteries with a focus on reuse and material recovery. The Sims Lifecycle Services tour showcased how they are managing the electronic waste stream and contributing to the circular economy. Sims works to reuse, repurpose, and re-engineer as many of the products they receive and only recycle what cannot be reused.

The International E-waste Management Network (IEMN) held its third webinar of the 2022 IEMN Regional Webinar series on 20 April 2022. The theme of this webinar was waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) policy and practice in Latin America. The agenda included welcoming remarks from US EPA, an introduction to IEMN, and 5 presentations highlighting the current and future status of WEE policy in four Latin American countries including Colombia (given by Diego Escobar of the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development of Colombia), Chile (from Tomas Saieg Paez of the Ministry of Environment of Chile) Argentina (given by Candela Nassi, of Argentina’s Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development), and Costa Rica (given by Eugenio Androvetto of Costa Rica’s Ministry of Health), as well as a presentaion by Alfredo Cueva of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) including an overview and lessons learned from the PREAL Project, which seeks to pave a path for circularity and sustainability in e-waste management across Latin America. The meeting had 111 attendees from North and South America, Asia, and Oceania.

The International E-waste Management Network (IEMN) held is second webinar of 2022 IEMN Regional Webinar series on 28 February 2022. The theme of the webinar was highlighting the current and future status of WEEE policy in the Middle East, with a focus on in Israel and Jordan WEEE Policy and practice. The first presentation was given by Ronit Avrahami of Israel’s Ministry of Environment. Ms. Avrahami works as the head of the Expanded Producer Responsibility (EPR) department in addition to her role as prices inspector to the waste sector. Although there was not an oral presentation on the profile of Jordan, some slides were provided on the e-waste profile of Jordan, including a general description of e-waste and the harmful chemicals that leak into the environment when e-waste is not processed adequately and ends up in a landfill. After highlighting the types of hazardous waste included in The Basel Convention, the slides presented some components of e-waste policy in Jordan as well as what would be needed to achieve implementation. The meetings had over 40 attendees from the Middle East, North America, South America, and Asia.

On January 19, 2022 the IEMN hosted its first webinar in the Regional E-Waste Panel Series, featuring WEEE policy and programs in Canada and the U.S.  The speakers were:

Jay Illingworth, Director of Harmonization for EPRA (Canada)

Garth Hickle, IEMN Director

Chris Newman, US EPA

The speakers provided an overview of current EPR programs in the Canadian provinces and U.S. states and discussed emerging issues and challenges facing these programs.

On September 28th Taiwan hosted a virtual event focused on regional E-waste management trends post Covid-19. Following opening remarks from Chi-hsiu Shen, deputy minister of Taiwans environmental protection administration and Justin Harris of the US environmental protection agency, Garth Hickle spoke on SERI’s role as secretariat for the IEMN. Warren Overton of Australia and New Zealand Recycling Platform presented an example of public and private partnership for e-waste management. Representatives from IEMN participating countries in the region were invited to provide country updates. Sayid Muhadhar from Indonesia, Tat Dat Vu from Vietnam, Geri Sanchez from the Philippines, Dr. Apaporn Siripornprasan from Thailand, and a representative fromMalaysia all gave presentations illustrating their countries’ e-waste management opportunities and challenges post Covid-19. The event was closed with a Q&A session and closing remarks from Chi-hsiu Shen.

The 2019 IEMN Annual Meeting was held from December 2 to 4 in Bangkok, Thailand, and gathered over 70 participants from the government, academia, and industry sector. The meeting reflected the importance of the United Nation Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) and incorporated SDGs elements into the workshops, particularly stressing the importance of SDG 17 and partnerships for the goals, in order to achieve an effective e-waste management by the member country.

The 2018 IEMN Annual Meeting was held in Manila from September 24 to 28 and hosted by the Philippines Department of Environment and Natural Resources. The event invited participants from over 17 countries to discuss about policies, new technologies and best practices for e-waste management. One of the key themes this year was the involvement of the industry and private sector in order to complete a circular economy of e-waste.

With the assistance of Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry, the 2017 IEMN Annual Meeting was held from October 2 to 6 in Jakarta, Indonesia. 50 participants from 19 countries in Asia, Africa, the Americas and Europe representing both government and non-government sectors shared their experiences of e-waste management. The first day of the IEMN meeting commemorated Indonesia’s Batik Day on October 2 with a series of lectures that mainly focused on Indonesia’s e-waste challenges. The next four days saw all international representatives share ideas about future e-waste policies and new technologies available.

The 2016 IEMN Annual Meeting was held from October 4 to 7 in Kauala Lumpur, Malaysia. In addition to experts from Taiwan and the US, the meeting gathered key stakeholders from Argentina, Cambodia, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, Thailand, and Tuvalu to share the latest update on e-waste management in their country.

The 2015 IEMN Annual Meeting in Bogota Colombia was held from Sept. 21 to 25 with the support from Colombia’s Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Developmen. There were 44 participants, including government officials and representatives of NGO from Asia, Africa, and Latin America, attended the workshop and exchanged practical management experiences of E-waste management. The meeting also included discussion extended from the previous year’s meeting and placed strong emphasis on the framework, development and practices of Environmental SoundManagement (ESM) as well as the best available technology to deal with cathode ray tube (CRT) TV monitor recycling.

The 2014 IEMN Annual Meeting convened from July 14 to 17 in Hanoi, Vietnam, and was cohosted by the Vietnam Environmental Administration (VEA). The primary feature of this year’s IEMN meeting was training on Environmentally Sound Management (ESM) of E-Waste adapted from materials developed by the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC). At the end of the meeting, participants confirmed their commitment to continuing the network and sharing updates through quarterly teleconferences and annual meetings.

The 2013 IEMN Annual Meeting took place in the United States from July 15-19. The meeting was organized by USEPA and EPAT and hosted by CalEPA in Sacramento and USEPA Region 9 in San Francisco. Participants joined from Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, India, Ghana, Nigeria, Colombia, Argentina, El Salvador, and Brazil.  This year’s IEMN sessions featured the e-waste management experiences of U.S. states, with a specific focus on California, Minnesota and Oregon. At the end of the meeting, IEMN participants identified topics for continued discussion and information sharing as well as economy-level activities that could be enhanced with the input or experiences of Network participants. The group also committed to continue sharing updates through quarterly teleconferences and to meeting again in 2014 in Asia.

The 2012 International WEEE Management Workshop held from Oct. 15 to 20 in Taipei was a week-long seminar that focused in-depth on Taiwan’s system for recycling WEEE, called the 4-in-1 Recycling Program. This WEEE Management Workshop was a follow-up to the first international meeting on WEEE that EPA and EPAT co-hosted in June 2011. Participants joined the workshop from Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, the Philippines, India, Colombia, El Salvador, Trinidad and Tobago, Brazil, Argentina, Nigeria, and Ghana.The workshop also featured guest speakers who shared the status of WEEE management in the US, Japan, Singapore and Korea. At the conclusion of the 2012 meeting, the participants decided to form the International E-Waste Management Network (IEMN) in order to exchange information on an ongoing basis.