A 9-million-ton danger; caution is required!
A new analysis has counted all the small electronic items that people often do not recognize as e-waste, and the resulting figures are staggering.
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From chargers, e-cigarettes, and toys to tangles of cables, many items continue to pile up as e-waste, depriving supply chains of essential materials. A new analysis counts all the small electronic items that people often do not recognize as e-waste, and the figures look staggering.
According to a report in Chip, the weight of all e-cigarettes thrown away globally each year is estimated to be equal to three Brooklyn Bridges. The total weight of e-cigarettes and other small consumer products considered "invisible" is 9 billion kilograms per year. This amounts to half a million dump trucks' worth of electric toothbrushes, ugly holiday sweaters adorned with LEDs, drones, and other small electronic devices. Lined up bumper-to-bumper, these trucks would stretch from Nairobi to Rome.
The problem with throwing these items in the trash is that electronic devices often contain hazardous substances such as lead or mercury, which can leak from landfills and contaminate soil and water. Stashing devices at home is not ideal either. If these products were recycled instead, manufacturers could recover real gold and other valuable materials. This could reduce e-waste and potentially even the need for mining for more raw materials.
While discarded devices and computers have been a problem for decades, the new analysis sheds light on trends that have turned into a global mess and are often ignored. Disposable e-cigarettes are everywhere. New device iterations often come with new plugs that require new chargers. The Internet of Things has made everything interconnected.
Magdalena Charytanowicz, communications manager at the non-profit Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Forum, said in a press briefing, "Consumers often do not realize that some items contain electronics, and therefore these items do not reach the right place, and this is a loss."
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THEY ARE NOT RECYCLED?
According to the WEEE Forum, in 2019 alone, approximately 9.5 billion dollars' worth of materials, primarily iron, copper, and gold, could have been recovered. The copper-laden cables discarded last year could have circled the globe 107 times. Demand for copper, which is essential for renewable energy, electric vehicles, and more, is expected to skyrocket within this decade.
E-cigarettes that go into the trash (like other rechargeable devices) result in the waste of lithium, a critical battery mineral that the world will desperately need for the transition to cleaner energy and transportation.
The Brussels-based Forum commissioned the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) to conduct the new analysis on invisible electronic devices. The estimates are based on the global e-waste monitor, an international report that tracks all types of e-waste, which UNITAR last conducted in 2020.
Approximately 55 percent of e-waste is collected in Europe, largely thanks to laws requiring manufacturers to manage the waste their products generate. In many other parts of the world, there are no similar Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) laws or the recycling infrastructure needed to responsibly dismantle discarded products and extract valuable materials. Globally, the e-waste collection rate is only 17 percent.