Abstract:
Toxic colonialism is a term, which was initially coined by Jim Puckett of Greenpeace and
is defined as the act of shipping wastes to a poor, weaker or less developed country. The waste
includes harmless waste like paper, plastic, iron etc and toxic waste like hospital waste, e-waste
and lead-acid batteries waste or any other hazardous waste. Western countries generally resort to
replacing old electronic equipments thereby harvesting higher salvage value and getting rid of ewaste by exporting the second hand products during their useful life to relatively poorer nations.
Given this trend, poor countries have long been a popular destination for the industrial world’s
unwanted wastes. This research has focused on import of e-waste in Pakistan and has explored
major causes behind this toxic colonialism in country. This has also explored that what impact
does it has on the economy of Pakistan. The research has based on different survey and
interviews conducted in order to collect the information related to the import of e-waste in
Pakistan. Different benefits of the e-waste import along with major problems of this transboundary shipment of e-waste will be presented.
