Current Trend, Future Direction, and Enablers of e-Waste Management: Bibliometric Analysis and Literature Review

Abstract

In the current decade, effective management of electronic waste (e-waste) has emerged as a critical research area. Therefore, this research aimed to identify the current trend, future directions, and key enabler factors for e-waste management by conducting bibliometric analysis and literature review. Using the Scopus database, 441 peer-reviewed papers from 2012 to 2021 were collected for bibliometric analysis. To visualize the data, research mapping tools such as Biblioshiny and VOSviewer were employed. In addition to the bibliometric analysis, a literature review was conducted on the top ten articles to identify enabler factors influencing e-waste management. The analysis showed keywords such as “e-waste”, “recycling”, “e-waste management”, “sustainability”, “e-waste”, and “circular economy”. Additionally, some key motor themes of e-waste management field were identified, including “policy”, “human health”, “developing countries”, “e-waste management”, and “strategies” through thematic analysis. This research suggests that there are five dimensions of enablers in e-waste management: policy, economy, social, environmental, and technology. The combination of VOSviewer and Biblioshiny tools for bibliometric analysis along with a literature review proved to be a powerful and beneficial approach for scientific mapping and identifying the driving factors of e-waste management.