Singapore tops unmanaged e-waste rankings, study says

TRG Datacenters ranked Singapore as the country with the highest level of unmanaged electronic waste per person in a study of 157 countries.

According to the research, Singapore residents generate 20.3kg of unmanaged e-waste per capita each year. The city-state produces 121 million kilograms annually and recycles none of it through documented programmes. Puerto Rico ranked second at 20kg per person, followed by New Zealand at 19.6kg.

The rankings focused on electronic waste that is not properly collected or recycled, including discarded consumer and household technology such as smartphones, fridges, microwaves and LED lamps. Unmanaged e-waste per capita was the main measure, supported by data on documented recycling rates, e-waste legislation, collection targets and Extended Producer Responsibility policies.

Singapore stood out for combining the highest per-person level of unmanaged e-waste with existing legislation, but no recorded recycling, no Extended Producer Responsibility framework in the study's data and no collection target. The findings put its documented e-waste recycling rate at 0%.

Puerto Rico, which had no e-waste recycling programmes in the study, generates about 65 million kilograms of such waste a year. That leaves it just behind Singapore on a per-capita basis and places it among the top 10 jurisdictions without e-waste legislation or collection targets.

New Zealand, often associated with strong environmental credentials, ranked third after the study found it recycles none of its e-waste. It generates 101 million kilograms annually, with the report stating that the waste ends up in landfills and dumpsters.

The United Arab Emirates ranked fourth, producing 18.4kg of unmanaged e-waste per resident each year. It was the first country in the top five with documented recycling activity, generating 178 million kilograms annually and recycling 5.4 million kilograms, less than one-thirtieth of the total.

Bahrain completed the top five with 17.8kg per resident and no documented recycling in the data. It generates about 26 million kilograms a year, according to the study.

Across the top 10, formal recycling was limited. More than half of the countries in the group do not recycle e-waste at all, adding pressure to landfill systems and informal scrap streams.

The UK was cited as a contrasting case. More than 30% of recycling is documented there, but the country still processes less than a third of its technology waste, indicating that formal tracking does not necessarily translate into high overall recovery rates.

Electronic waste has become a growing policy and business issue as consumers replace connected devices, appliances and lighting products more frequently. The category includes products containing metals and hazardous substances, creating disposal costs and potential environmental liabilities when collection systems fail or remain incomplete.

The study found that 77.7% of global e-waste has an undetermined fate, highlighting a gap between the amount generated and the amount that enters recognised recycling channels. That leaves a large volume of discarded equipment outside official collection systems, where it may be stockpiled, dumped or handled through informal dismantling.

For governments and waste operators, the results point to uneven development in e-waste systems across markets. Some countries have legislation on the books but little evidence of effective collection or recycling, while others lack both regulation and infrastructure.

A cybersecurity analyst at TRG Datacenters commented on the findings: "E-waste carries a lot of risks for people who stay around it: it can release toxic substances, including mercury and lead. If it's dumped where it's not supposed to be, the toxins will poison soil and water. Recycling is more than just an ecological concern; it's a health concern for entire communities and nations."