another study complements this approach by investigating and surveying the nature of illegal trade in waste of electric and electronic equipment weee or ewaste in the european context huisman et al the study estimates that among the million tons of ewaste generated in europe in only of them were collected and recycled in official systems while the remaining were either exported recycled under noncompliant conditions in europe processed by the informal sector or simply discarded in waste bins it also estimates that million tons of ewaste departed the eu in undocumented exports that would likely be classified as illegal waste trade