Global E-waste Trade Network, 1996.
1 2014-03-06T05:08:24-08:00 Josh Lepawsky 31444794f29f45991a28c6c997946216e765688e 386 2 A cartogram of the international trade and traffic of electronic waste, 1996. plain 2014-03-06T05:10:08-08:00 Josh Lepawsky 31444794f29f45991a28c6c997946216e765688eThis page is referenced by:
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2014-02-25T03:56:32-08:00
How do we know e-waste? Electronic discards and the double social life of trade statistics.
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2014-10-02T05:25:06-07:00
Another important genre of knowing e-waste is the use of trade statistics. In a forthcoming paper (Lepawsky, 2014) I describe some of the key difficulties in measuring the international trade and traffic of e-waste using such data so that I can then go on and map their patterns (see here and here). I'll summarize those difficulties, but hold in the back of your mind that adjective 'international'. It might have rolled by you without much of a thought, but, as we'll see in a moment, when we're thinking about the social life of methods it is a little piece of language that turns out to be highly significant.
The difficulties for measuring the international trade and traffic of e-waste are many, but can be summarized as follows:
- There is no universally agreed upon definition of e-waste.
- No existing international trade data directly distinguishes between new and used electronics.
- Illicit and other forms of unrecorded or misrecorded trade aren't captured in trade data.
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2014-07-07T06:48:13-07:00
Visualizing Transboundary Shipments of E-waste
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Interactive cartograms of the e-waste trade.
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2014-07-07T07:49:04-07:00
How is the international trade and traffic of electronic waste organized? These cartograms are a partial answer to that question.
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These visualizations are an interactive depiction of work published as part of the Reassembling Rubbish project in academic journals. For readers who may be interested, the full articles are available free without subscription at the following links:
Lepawsky, Josh. 2014. “The Changing Geography of Global Trade in Electronic Discards: Time to Rethink the E-Waste Problem.” The Geographical Journal, April, n/a–n/a. doi:10.1111/geoj.12077. Click here for paper.Lepawsky, Josh, and Chris McNabb. 2010. “Mapping International Flows of Electronic Waste.” The Canadian Geographer 54 (2): 177–95. Click here for paper.
What do the Cartograms Show?
The cartograms depict data available from the United Nations Statistics Division's "COMTRADE" database. The data are organized into territories and the flows of e-waste that connect them. Territories are colour coded to reflect their status under Annex VII of the Basel Convention (blue for Annex VII territories and yellow for non-Annex VII territories). The larger the circle representing a given territory (e.g., Canada) the more other territories report receiving e-waster shipments from it. Readers not already familiar with the significance of the division between Annex VII and non-Annex VII territories are invited to download the publications above, both of which provide discussion about this issue.
The flow lines are also colour coded to reflect the Annex VII status of their source. In other words, flows shown in blue originate in Annex VII territories; flows shown in yellow originate in non-Annex VII territories. The thicker the flow lines, the larger the volume of the flow.
The data come with some extremely important caveats and limits. These are discussed fully in the Methods section of Lepawsky (2014, see above for free download). In summary, the caveats and limits of the data include:
- The data showing information only for "waste batteries and scrap of primary batteries and electrical accumulators" (technically referred to as Harmonised System 2002 code 854810).
- The data are import transactions reported by a given territory. In other words, these are data showing what Territory "A" says it receives as an import from any other territories in a given year.
- The data miss unreported trade (whether licit or illicit).
- The data visualized here are best understood as proxy measurements of overall transboundary shipments of electronic waste.
How do I use the Cartograms?
Interacting with the cartograms is as easy as using any webpage:
- Click on a given territory (e.g., Canada) and its trade network will be highlighted and a side-bar with additional information will pop-up.
- Read flow lines in a clockwise direction from a given territory to the territory(ies) it reports receiving shipments of e-waste from.
How were the Cartograms Produced?
A full discussion of the methods used to build these visualizations is available in Lepawsky (2014, see link above for free download). To summarize the process:
- Data were downloaded from COMTRADE and organized in a spreadsheet.
- The organized data were imported into Gephi, a free open-source network analysis software.
- The networks created in Gephi were exported using Sigmajs Exporter, a project of the Oxford Internet Institute.