Bangladesh's e-waste management system is stalled by policy gaps and poor coordination between government agencies, according to Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB), the country's main anti-corruption watchdog.

TIB made the assessment public in a statement reported by The Business Standard, putting the blame squarely on the institutional layer rather than on collectors, dismantlers or the material stream itself.

What does TIB say is broken?

The watchdog identifies two structural failures:

• Policy gaps — the existing rules don't fully cover how end-of-life electronics should be collected, processed and disposed of.
• Poor coordination — the agencies responsible for hazardous waste, environment and industry oversight aren't working together on enforcement.

That combination, TIB argues, leaves discarded electronics — circuit boards, cables, batteries, CRT glass and mixed-metal scrap — moving through informal channels with no verified downstream processing.

The takeaway: this is a governance problem first, and a technology problem second.

Why does this matter for the material stream?

E-waste is one of the fastest-growing waste categories in South Asia. Bangladesh has adopted e-waste management rules on paper, but TIB's assessment suggests implementation has not caught up with the volumes entering the waste stream each year.

For scrap processors and secondary-material buyers, that gap has a practical consequence: material that should flow to licensed recyclers with audited recovery rates instead leaks into informal dismantling, where copper, aluminum and precious-metal recovery happens without emissions controls or documented outputs.

In short: the feedstock exists, but the compliant infrastructure to handle it doesn't have a working regulatory backbone.

Who is being called on to act?

TIB's statement directs its criticism at government institutions, not at the recycling sector. The watchdog's core demand is that the relevant agencies close the policy gaps and start coordinating on enforcement rather than operating in silos.

Bangladesh's environmental regulator and associated ministries now face the choice of tightening the rules and assigning clear responsibility for the e-waste stream, or leaving the system in its current limbo.

The next milestone to watch is whether the government responds to TIB's findings with a concrete revision of the e-waste rules — and whether that revision sets deadlines that recyclers and regulators can actually track.