The pace of electronic waste (e-waste) generation is alarming, outstripping documented recycling efforts by a factor of five, as revealed in the United Nations' fourth Global E-waste Monitor (GEM) report released on Wednesday.
In 2022 alone, a staggering 62 million tonnes of e-waste were produced worldwide, a quantity that would fill approximately 1.55 million 40-tonne trucks – enough to encircle the equator with trucks bumper-to-bumper. However, only 22.3 per cent of this mass was properly collected and recycled, leaving a whopping USD 62 billion worth of recoverable natural resources unaccounted for, thereby escalating pollution risks on a global scale.
The report, a collaboration between the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), underscored the critical gap in resource recovery, with e-waste recycling currently meeting just 1 per cent of the demand for rare earth elements.
Projections indicate a worrying trend, with annual e-waste generation expected to rise by 2.6 million tonnes each year, reaching an estimated 82 million tonnes by 2030 – a 33 per cent surge from 2022 levels.
E-waste, encompassing any discarded product with a plug or battery, poses significant health and environmental hazards due to toxic additives and hazardous substances like mercury, which can adversely affect human health.
The magnitude of materials within e-waste is staggering, with the 2022 output containing 31 billion kg of metals, 17 billion kg of plastics, and 14 billion kg of other materials.
Alarmingly, the report projects a decline in documented collection and recycling rates, from 22.3 per cent in 2022 to a mere 20 per cent by 2030, further exacerbating the gap between recycling efforts and e-waste generation.
Various challenges contribute to this widening gap, including technological advancements, increased consumption, limited repair options, shorter product life cycles, society's growing dependence on electronics, design flaws, and inadequate e-waste management infrastructure.
Vanessa Gray, Head of the Environment and Emergency Telecommunications Division at the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau, emphasized the economic and environmental imperatives of proper e-waste management. Gray highlighted that without concerted action, the world is squandering USD 91 billion in valuable metals due to insufficient e-waste recycling, risking the digital ambitions of future generations.
Efforts to elevate e-waste collection and recycling rates to 60 per cent by 2030 could yield benefits exceeding costs by more than USD 38 billion, the report suggests, mitigating human health risks and safeguarding valuable resources for future use.
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