This course will help the participants to understand why and how to manage e-waste in an environmentally sound manner and how action on e-waste could be taken in their own life, business, or organization.

The aims of the course are to:

• Show how sound management of e-waste can help reduce GHG emissions, mitigate climate change and prevent hazards to health and the environment in accordance with the Basel, Rotterdam, and Stockholm conventions;
• Share best practices, technological innovations, and sustainable e-waste recovery and inclusive recycling business models;
• Present innovative research on technological solutions to reduce hazard by design;
• Explore how the value in e-waste can be extracted in a way that supports the local economy and protects people’s health and the environment, evaluating the socio-economic impacts of this change into more sustainable business models;
• Explore incentives and opportunities for e-waste recycling;
• Advocate for the Environmentally Sound Management (ESM) of e-waste.

The course includes 5 mini-courses of about 6-8 hours each, including time to complete assignment tasks. (Modules do not equate to weeks - this can be spread across a longer time span).

Mini-courses 1 and 2: Introduction to e-waste - Issues, Impacts & Solutions
Mini-course 3: E-waste and children’s health
Mini-course 4: Reducing e-waste by Design, Standards, Business and Policy
Mini-course 5: Environmentally Sound Management & Inclusive E-waste Recycling

Learners who complete all the five mini-courses will receive a United Nations Environment Programme/Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions (BRS) and EIT Climate KIC certificate of course completion, including the contributing organizations. 

The MOOC has been developed by  the Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions (www.brsmeas.org), the EIT Climate-KIC (https://eit.europa.eu/our-communities/eit-climate-kic), the University of Leuven (KU Leuven, Belgium), (https://www.kuleuven.be/english) with contributions from The EIT RawMaterials Academy (https://eit.europa.eu/our-communities/eit-rawmaterials), the International Telecommunication Union (https://www.itu.int/en/Pages/default.aspx), the World Resources Forum (www.wrforum.org/) and  the contribution of the World Health Organization (www.who.int) .