Quantifying export flows of used electronics: advanced methods to resolve used goods within trade data

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Trade Analysis
• Waste Management

Background:

• Limited quantitative data exists on used electronics exports from the United States.
• Understanding these export flows is critical for e-waste management and global trade analysis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and demonstrate a methodology for quantifying the export of used electronics from the U.S.
• To estimate the volume and destinations of used laptop exports from the U.S. in 2010.

Main Methods:

• Utilized detailed U.S. export trade data, combining two datasets for granular analysis.
• Developed a methodology to identify used electronics by establishing a used-new unit value threshold based on destination region, NVEM, and sales prices.
• Analyzed exports by port, transport mode, month, trade partner, and trade code.

Main Results:

• Estimated 748 to 1199 thousand used laptops were exported from the U.S. in 2010.
• 78-81% of these used laptop exports were destined for non-OECD countries, with Asia as the largest recipient.
• Latin America and the Caribbean was the second largest destination region for used laptop exports.

Conclusions:

• The developed methodology provides a robust approach to estimating used electronics exports.
• The findings highlight significant export flows of used laptops to developing regions, impacting global e-waste dynamics.
• Further application of this methodology to other used electronic products is recommended for comprehensive insights.