The Circular Electronics Initiative (CEI) is a Swiss-funded programme supporting Egypt, Ghana and South Africa in building the conditions for circular and inclusive e-waste management — building on more than two decades of Swiss engagement in the sector.
The use of electrical and electronic devices has surged in recent decades, driven by technological advances, falling prices, and widespread digitalisation. While these developments bring real social and economic benefits, they also fuel a growing environmental challenge: waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), or e-waste.
E-waste is now the world’s fastest-growing waste stream. Improper handling releases toxic substances, posing serious risks to human health and the environment. In many developing countries, recycling has emerged informally, where individuals recover valuable metals for income — often under unsafe conditions.
Yet better e-waste management offers more than risk reduction. WEEE contains critical raw materials and precious metals, making efficient recovery a key lever for a more circular economy.
The WEEE challenge in numbers (Global E-Waste Monitor, 2024):
Switzerland has shared its WEEE management expertise for over two decades. In 2003, SECO launched the Swiss e-Waste Programme, partnering with India, China, South Africa, Colombia, and Peru on e-waste management. This led to the Sustainable Recycling Industries (SRI) programme and now to CEI, its latest chapter.
CEI goes further than SRI, shifting from a recycling focus to a broader circular electronics approach that emphasizes reuse, refurbishment, and value retention. Informal sector integration is treated as a core part of the design — not a side issue — recognizing both its economic importance and the need to improve labour, environmental, and traceability standards over time.
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) sits at the heart of CEI, aligning incentives and financing to drive lasting improvement. This is backed by support for policy, institutions, technical standards, conformity assessment, and enforcement — creating a level playing field across the WEEE value chain.
CEI is designed as a systems-level intervention that addresses the enabling environment, market conditions and institutional capacities required for sustainable WEEE management. Its intervention logic combines policy and legislation, normative and enforcement mechanisms, operational improvements in collection and treatment, and monitoring systems that generate the evidence base needed for adaptive management and long-term sector financing.
CEI’s intervention logic is organised around four main outcomes that together create a complete system for circular electronics: Policy, Normative, Collection and Treatment & Monitoring.
A fifth cross-cutting component ensures that the programme’s results are made available globally, maximising their impact (Knowledge Management).
Developing national e-waste policies, EPR-based legislation and empowering public institutions to steer the system.
Defining environmental and social standards, conformity assessment schemes and independent auditing and enforcement, tested through pilots.
Strengthening collection systems, compliant recycling and treatment, hazardous fraction solutions, and progressive formalisation of the sector.
Building robust statistics on products and e-waste flows to measure progress and support EPR financing.
The SRI project was implemented across six countries in the Global South over two phases. The CEI project builds on this work, continuing in three of these countries.
Colombia introduced its first e-waste regulations in 2010, based on the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) principle. Over more than a decade, SRI supported the development of a formal recycling sector and strengthened regulatory frameworks. The SRI programme in Colombia has now concluded.
By 2008, Peru faced rapid technological consumption growth and rising e-waste without a regulatory framework, with only 0.9% of the estimated 90,000 tons generated formally processed. SRI supported Peru in building a formal e-waste management system over more than a decade. The SRI programme in Peru has now concluded.
When SRI began in Ghana, the country faced severe challenges in managing e-waste, particularly in Agbogbloshie, the largest e-waste recycling cluster in West Africa. SRI helped build the foundations of a national management system over more than a decade. The work continues under CEI, running from 2025 to 2029.
Egypt is Africa's third most populated country, resulting in substantial e-waste generation. Formal recycling infrastructure remains limited and most e-waste is processed informally. SRI worked in Egypt from 2013 to 2025 — the work continues under CEI, running from 2025 to 2029.
South Africa lacked a national e-waste policy when SRI began its work in 2020, with high licensing costs, fragmented industry representation, and most e-waste remaining unmanaged. SRI helped transform this landscape in just a few years — the work continues under CEI, running from 2025 to 2029.
