Singapore is a gold mine: re-orienting international flows of secondhand electronics

Connolly, Creighton P.(Creighton Paul) (2012) Singapore is a gold mine: re-orienting international flows of secondhand electronics. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

[English] PDF (Migrated (PDF/A Conversion) from original format: (application/pdf)) - Accepted Version Available under License - The author retains copyright ownership and moral rights in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission. Download (43MB) [English] PDF - Accepted Version Available under License - The author retains copyright ownership and moral rights in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission. (Original Version)

Abstract

This thesis examines the processing and trading practices within the in/formal economy surrounding secondhand electronics in Singapore and its surrounding region by asking two main questions: first, it asks how the international trade networks for electronic waste are formed, organized and regulated by considering who and what are the actors enabling the trade; second, it considers to what extent il/legality or il/licitness is or is not a characteristic of these trading practices. This thesis builds on previous work demonstrating that there are no clear boundaries between the il/legal or the in/formal and evaluates the (in)effectiveness of legislative measures employed at varying levels of jurisdiction to regulate the trade in secondhand electronics. The Basel Convention is the international treaty that supposedly regulates the international trade and traffic in hazardous (including electronic) waste, yet there are several shortcomings in the Convention which leave room for exploitation. A key finding of this thesis is Singapore's role as a global source of secondhand electronics to developing regions, which contradicts the logic of mainstream publications criticizing e-waste flows to the developing world, and is a pattern not accounted for in the laws of the Basel Convention. -- Key words: E-waste; Singapore; Basel Convention; legal geographies; informal economies; licit/illicit trade.

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