Electronic Waste Generation by Selected Students of a University in Bangladesh: A Case Study

Abstract

Electronic waste (e-waste) creation has increased as a result of the advancement of recent tools and digital technologies. It is required to forecast the amount of generated e-waste over a specific time period in order to handle such generated e-waste environmentally. The current study fcuses to forecast the generation of e-waste by a specified number of students within a university in Bangladesh, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST), Sylhet, in order to achieve this goal. The students were chosen from several departments. The estimates of e-waste generated by students from electronics such as mobile phones, laptops, desktops, pen drives, headphones, and computer components such as keyboards, motherboards, and mice are described in this paper. The volume of e-waste was estimated in this study using consumption and use (C&U) and waste stream approaches. The total amount of electronic waste generated at SUST, Sylhet, Bangladesh in 2016 was 2494.38 kg based on study. The amount of e-waste was estimated using the linear trend forecasting approach. The forecasts also revealed that the e-waste generated will gradually increase, reaching 4070.62 kg in 2024, more than double the amount generated in 2016. This study