Social impact assessment of informal recycling of electronic ICT waste in Pakistan using UNEP SETAC guidelines

New and improved Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is being produced every day. With every new product on the market, an older product becomes obsolete. These obsolete products are being added to the world's fastest growing waste stream, ICT electronic waste (e-waste). This is formally recycled in developed countries, stockpiled, landfilled or shipped to developing countries, such as Pakistan, here it is recycled informally through crude processes (e.g. manual dismantling, burning, dumping and dipping in acids to extract gold and other precious metals). This study assessed the social impacts of informal e-waste recycling in Pakistan using data obtained in a detailed on-site inventory of the processes directly involved in informal e-waste recycling. The inventory and assessment were conducted according to United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) guidelines on Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA). The results presented in this paper fill an important data gap and can be integrated with data on other stages of ICT product lifecycle to produce a full SLCA of such products.