This chapter is the third of four chapters covering the e-waste development cycle. Based on the e-waste development cycle approach and country status of Chapter 2 and the structured impact assessment and factual basis of Chapter 3, this Chapter 4 forms the heart of the policy development process. Development of take-back systems is a time-consuming and complex process. An iterative approach is recommended due to the heterogeneous character of e-waste, its quickly changing material compositions and economic values, combined with different cultural and socioeconomic conditions and organizational and technical capabilities. The chapter provides many possible interventions and experiences in the domains of Policy and Legislation, Business and Finance and Technologies and Skills useful for countries starting their e-waste policies, those with systems in place, and established countries with many years of experience. In all cases, the "à la carte” action-based approach provides an overview of experiences and background information to enable the later selection of key interventions that depend on the different needs and development stages of countries. The listing of all intervention options in turn forms the input for a coherent and feasible national action plan for practical and successful implementation as described in Chapter 5.

This chapter is the first from four chapters, introducing a dynamic and iterative e-waste development cycle. It provides structured guidance to the complexity of the development process. It illustrates the key building blocks needed for both countries starting with e-waste systems, those having some policies implemented already, as well as for further enhancement in established countries. The chapter also describes the first step of the development cycle by assessment of the country status. The steps involved are evaluating the role of stakeholder analysis; review of existing policies and problem (re)definition forming the basis for subsequent impact assessment (Chapter 3); policy, financial, and technological interventions (Chapter 4); and an implementation road map including conditions for success (Chapter 5). The proposed new "á la carte” approach allows for a more forward-looking, more-focused, as well as flexible approach with a higher feasibility of reaching sustainable development goals in a timely manner.

This chapter is the last from four chapters. Based on the e-waste development cycle approach introduced in Chapter 2 and the structured impact assessment of Chapter 3, Chapter 4 provided many possible interventions and experiences in the domains of Policy and Legislation, Business and Finance, and Technologies and Skills. These intervention options are placed in perspective in Chapter 5, representing part 4 of the e-waste development cycle. It provides guidance for the actual decision processes by listing all intervention options, the selection and grouping of options, and translation of the results into a national roadmap. The value of the road map is that all key information, the allocation of roles and responsibilities, plus timing and resources are converging into one reference document. When implemented, three additional development areas are crucial conditions to success: “Monitoring and Control” is required to monitor performance and to intervene in case of noncompliance. “Awareness and Education” is vital for both collection and long-term societal acceptance. “Design Feedback” is relevant as a key prevention area, requiring continuous attention. The new iterative "á la carte” e-waste development approach allows a more focused, forward-looking and fact-based decision process that can be implemented in a flexible, feasible, and faster way. This contributes directly globally to the SDG-12 of Sustainable Production and Consumption for the electronics sector.

This chapter is the second from four chapters, detailing the role of environmental, economic and social impact assessment of WEEE collection and treatment. It forms the second step of a dynamic and iterative e-waste development cycle intended to provide guidance on the complexity of the development process. The chapter also describes detailed assessment steps for evaluating collection and recycling infrastructure for both starting, emerging and established countries improving their national e-waste systems. Secondly, the comprehensive impact assessment specifically targets the identification of improvement potential and societal priorities for (re)defining legislative and other interventions. The outcomes form the necessary factual basis for the heart of the development cycle as presented in Chapter 4 describing options for advancing Policy and Legislation, Business and Finance, Technologies and Skills. This in turn is the basis for successful national implementation roadmaps following in Chapter 5.

The environmental impact of consumer electronic products mainly focuses on material and energy reduction, rather than on optimizing the lifetime. A number of strategies have been developed to optimize the life of products. However, it is not possible to make a prioritization of the best strategy for a specific situation. In this paper we describe how an analysis of the user behavior provide give direction for the strategy selection. With this approach an environmental benefit can be combined with business and consumer benefits.

ECO-QUEST for Electronics, an ECOdesign QUESTionnaire for suppliers of the Electronics Industry, has been developed by the Delft Research Laboratory for Sustainable Product Innovation with support of some major manufacturers in the Electronics Industry. Basically it is a self-audit system to establish the relative environmental merit of goods and services of suppliers. The system has been organized in such a way that it does not take more than 30 minutes to come to a meaningful result. ECO-QUEST is a first and easy to understand introduction to more comprehensive environmental product analysis and is therefore also a basis for product improvements by Design for Environment.