{"id":7535,"date":"2020-10-06T09:52:39","date_gmt":"2020-10-06T13:52:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.itadsummit.com\/?page_id=7535"},"modified":"2020-10-06T10:47:28","modified_gmt":"2020-10-06T14:47:28","slug":"itad-blog-global-electronic-waste-up-21-in-five-years-and-recycling-isnt-keeping-up","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.itadsummit.com\/index.php\/itad-blog-global-electronic-waste-up-21-in-five-years-and-recycling-isnt-keeping-up\/","title":{"rendered":"ITAD Blog: Global Electronic Waste Up 21% in Five years, and Recycling Isn\u2019t Keeping Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\tITAD Blog\n\t<\/h1>\n

\n\t\tGlobal Electronic Waste Up 21% in Five years, and Recycling Isn\u2019t Keeping Up\n\t<\/h6>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"circuit\"\n\t

ITAD Blog<\/h1>\n

GLOBAL ELECTRONIC WASTE UP TO 21 % IN FIVE YEARS AND RECYCLING ISN’T KEEPING UP<\/h3>\n\t

Each year, the total amount of electric and electronic equipment the world uses\u00a0grows by 2.5 million tonnes. Phones, radios, toys, laptops \u2013 if it has the power or battery supply it\u2019s likely to join a growing mountain of \u201ce-waste\u201d after use.<\/p>\n

In 2019 alone, the world generated 53.6 million tonnes of e-waste. That\u2019s about 7.3 kilograms per person and equivalent in weight to 350 cruise ships. Asia produced the lion\u2019s share \u2013 24.9 million tonnes \u2013 followed by the Americas (13.1 million tonnes) and Europe (12 million tonnes), while Africa and Oceania generated 2.9 and 0.7 million tonnes respectively.<\/p>\n

By 2030, the global total is likely to swell to 74.7 million tonnes, almost a doubling of the annual amount of new e-waste in just 16 years. This makes it the world\u2019s fastest-growing domestic waste stream, fuelled mainly by more people buying electronic products with shorter life cycles and fewer options for repair.<\/p>\n

Discarded electric and electronic products are forming the fastest growing domestic waste stream worldwide.\u00a0UNU\/UNITAR SCYCLE\u00a9\/Yassyn Sidki<\/p>\n

These products can help improve living standards, and it\u2019s good that more and more people can afford them. But growing global demand is outpacing our capacity to recycle or dispose of electronic products safely. Once they\u2019re obsolete and discarded, these products can end up accumulating in the environment, polluting habitats, and harming people and wildlife.<\/p>\n

E-waste recycling<\/h2>\n

Only 17.4% of 2019\u2019s e-waste was formally collected and recycled. Since 2014, the amount of recycled e-waste has only grown by 1.8 million tonnes each year. The total amount of e-waste generated increased by 9.2 million tonnes over the same period. At the same time, the amount of undocumented e-waste is increasing.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0new research, we found that Europe has the highest collection and recycling rate, covering about 42.5% of the total e-waste generated in 2019. Asia ranked second at 11.7%, the Americas and Oceania were similar at 9.4% and 8.8%, and Africa had the lowest rate at 0.9%. What happened with the rest (82.6%) of the world\u2019s e-waste generated in 2019 isn\u2019t clear?<\/p>\n

In high-income countries, around 8% of e-waste is thought to be discarded in waste bins, while 7%-20% is exported. In lower-income countries, the picture is less clear, as e-waste is mostly managed informally.<\/p>\n

Without a reliable system of waste management, toxic substances contained in e-waste, such as mercury, brominated flame retardants, chlorofluorocarbons, and hydrochlorofluorocarbons, are more likely to be released into the environment and harm the people who live, work, and play in e-waste scrapyards.<\/p>\n

Mercury is used in computer monitors and fluorescent lighting, but exposure to it can cause brain damage. We estimated that about 50 tonnes of mercury are contained in these undocumented flows of e-waste that end up in the environment each year.<\/p>\n

E-waste doesn\u2019t just pose a health risk though. It also contributes directly to global warming. Dumped temperature-exchange equipment, found in fridges and air conditioners, can slowly release greenhouse gases. About 98 million tonnes are thought to leak from scrapyards each year, equivalent to 0.3% of global emissions from the energy sector.<\/p>\n

Discarded e-waste isn\u2019t just an environmental problem, it\u2019s also an economic opportunity.<\/p>\n

Aside from toxins, e-waste also contains precious metals and useful raw materials, such as gold, silver, copper, and platinum. The total value of all this discarded as e-waste in 2019 has been conservatively valued at US$57 billion (\u00a345 billion) \u2013 a sum greater than the GDP of most countries.<\/p>\n

But since only 17.4% of 2019\u2019s e-waste was collected and recycled, just US$10 billion of this was recovered in an environmentally responsible way. Only 4 million tonnes of raw materials were made available for recycling.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, the world is slowly waking up to the scale of this problem. As of the end of 2019, 78 countries, covering 71% of the world\u2019s population, either had a policy for managing e-waste or were putting regulation in place \u2013 an increase of 5% from 2017. But in many of these countries, policies still aren\u2019t legally binding and regulation isn\u2019t enforced.<\/p>\n

As researchers, we\u2019ll continue to monitor the world\u2019s e-waste to support the creation of a circular economy and sustainable societies. We hope that our efforts to track this growing problem can spur governments to act with an urgency that reflects the scale of the challenge, with laws and enforcement that can drastically increase the proportion of e-waste that\u2019s recycled safely.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Author: The Conversation<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ITAD Blog Global Electronic Waste Up 21% in Five years, and Recycling…<\/p>\n

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