The US and China contributed the most to record mountains of electronic waste such as cellphones, hair dryers and fridges last year and less than a sixth ended up recycled worldwide, a UN study said yesterday.
Overall, 41.8 million tonnes of “e-waste” were dumped around the globe last year and only an estimated 6.5 million tonnes were taken for recycling, the United Nations University (UNU) said.
“Worldwide, e-waste constitutes a valuable ‘urban mine,’ a large potential reservoir of recyclable materials,” UNU rector David Malone said.
The report estimated that the discarded materials, including gold, silver, iron and copper, was worth US$52 billion.
The US led e-waste dumping with 7.1 million tonnes last year, ahead of China on 6 million and followed by Japan, Germany and India, it said.
The US reported collection of 1 million tonnes for 2012 while China said it collected 1.3 million tonnes of equipment such as TVs, refrigerators and laptops in 2013.
Norway led per capita waste generation, with 28kg dumped per inhabitant, followed by Switzerland, Iceland, Denmark and Britain. On that ranking, the US was ninth and China was not among the list of the top 40.
Researchers said that, in many cases, it made economic sense to recover metals that included 16.5 million tonnes of iron, 1.9 million tonnes of copper and 300 tonnes of gold.
The gold alone was valued at US$11.2 billion, with the precious metal used in devices because it is a good, non-corrosive conductor of electricity.
“At the same time, the hazardous content of e-waste constitute a ‘toxic mine’ that must be managed with extreme care,” Malone said, referring to components such as lead and mercury, which are found on some discarded devices.
Global volumes of e-waste were likely to rise by more than 20 percent to 50 million tonnes in 2018, driven by rising sales and shorter lifetimes of electronic equipment, the report said.
Ruediger Kuehr, one of the authors of the report, said many people were aware of the global problem of waste but often left aging toys or cellphones in drawers or cellars at home. “People don’t see it as an issue in their own households,” he said.
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