Second of 3 Parts
Humanity produces 62 million tons of electronic waste every year, enough to fill 1.5 million transport trucks, making it one of the world’s fastest-growing waste streams, found a 2024 UN report. Less than a quarter of that is properly recycled, leaving mountains of electronics to rot away in unregulated dumpsites, where they can leach chemicals into the soil and water-table.
Poor electronic waste management practices cause US$78 billion in externalized costs to human health and the environment each year. They also contribute to climate change, including when hazardous substances, like refrigerants, are mishandled and released into the atmosphere.
But recycling alone won’t be enough to deal with the e-waste surge, experts say. On the back of an explosion of demand for consumer electronics, global e-waste production has grown five times faster than formal recycling rates since 2010. That’s why experts say so-called “upstream” solutions are critical.
By enforcing product design regulations, countries can promote design for continuous reuse of electronic products, for example through refurbishment and reassembly, and spur circularity by requiring producers to use recycled mineral content. Nations can also develop extended producer responsibility programs, which make electronics producers responsible for the end-of-life management of their products, including taking components back into the production system.
These measures can incentivize businesses to innovate while facilitating the right of consumers to repair and refurbish their electronics, keeping them away from landfills as long as possible, experts say.
Any electronics that can no longer be reused or repurposed, Aggarwal-Khan said, should be managed in formal electronic waste facilities to recover as many raw materials as possible. (To be continued) UNEP News