Global e-waste has risen 5 percent per capita over the past two years, amid rising incomes and falling prices. As electronic and electrical devices become more affordable for more, people are also encouraged to replace their equipment –such as TVs or smartphones- more quickly, or to acquire new models. The world generated 44.7 million metric tonnes (mt) in 2016, up 8 percent (3.3 Mt) from 2014, according to the United Nations Global E-waste Monitor 2017. The tonnage is expected to rise another 17 percent by 2021 to 52.2 million Mt. The numbers mean that on average, each person yielded 5.8 kg of e-waste in 2014, with the figure rising to 6.1 kg in 2016, and set to hit 6.8 kg by 2021.
Waste contained USD 55 billion last year worth of precious metals, high value materials
The report categorises e-waste as discarded products with a battery or plug, ranging from end-of-life refrigerators and television sets to solar panels, mobile phones and computers. Only 20 percent of this tonnage is recycled. The report also noted that the waste last year contained USD 55 billion worth of gold, silver, copper and other high value materials. About 4 percent of 2016's e-waste is known to have been thrown into landfills. Over three-quarters (76% or 34.1 Mt) likely ended up incinerated, in landfills, recycled in informal (backyard) operations or remain stored in households.
The rise of IT, telecom equipment e-waste
The report said growth was also being fueled by the global growth of information and communication-related electrical and electronic equipment, most notably the increasing number of applications and services in such areas as health, education, government, entertainment, and commerce, delivered at increasingly high speeds and attracting more users to a growing number of networks.
The report said growth was also being fueled by the global growth of information and communication-related electrical and electronic equipment, most notably the increasing number of applications and services in such areas as health, education, government, entertainment, and commerce, delivered at increasingly high speeds and attracting more users to a growing number of networks. The report said growth was also being fueled by the global growth of information and communication-related electrical and electronic equipment, most notably the increasing number of applications and services in such areas as health, education, government, entertainment, and commerce, delivered at increasingly high speeds and attracting more users to a growing number of networks.
Even though the biggest e-waste categories were small and large appliances (26 Mt for small and large equipment), plus heating and cooling equipment (7.6 Mt), small IT and telecommunication equipment generated 3.9 Mt in 2016. The figure is expected to grow every year by 2 percent until 2020. This category is made up of mobile phones, Global Positioning Systems (GPS), pocket calculators, routers, personal computers, printers, telephones. Screens generated 6.6 Mt in 2016. Small equipment, which includes vacuum cleaners and toasters, but also electrical and electronic toys, small electrical and electronic tools and small medical devices, generated 16.8 Mt.
More people use, discard telecom-related equipment
With population of 7.4 billion, the world now has 7.7 billion mobile subscriptions and that more than 8 in 10 people on Earth are covered by a mobile broadband signal. Some 3.6 billion people, close to half the world's population (45.9%) now use the internet, up from 20.5 percent in 2007. Roughly half of humanity has a computer and internet access at home. Some 48 percent of households have a computer (up from 30.2% in 2007) and 54 percent have internet access (up from 23% in 2007).
In addition to basic prepaid mobile services and handsets becoming cheaper worldwide, prices are falling for many other types of equipment such as computers, peripheral equipment, TVs, laptops and printers With the recent conversion from analogue to digital broadcasting, many TV sets were unnecessarily trashed. While analogue televisions can receive digital signals simply by using a digital box, many consumers chose to upgrade, discarding all their Carbon-Ray-Tube TVs.
By 2016 in the US, most people owned a phone, every second person owned a desktop computer, and close to 25 percent also owned an e-book reader. Between 2012 and 2015, the proportion of adult Americans who owned a smartphone, a computer, and a tablet doubled to 36 percent. Between 2013 and 2015, smartphone users started to delay their phone upgrades but the average smartphone lifecycle in the US, China, and major EU economies does not typically exceed one and a half to two years.
The weight of all the chargers for mobile phones, laptops (et cetera), now produced each year is estimated at 1 million tons, highlighting the need to make power adapters compatible with more devices, following universal standards developed and promoted by the ITU.
Legislation is on the rise but the fate of most e-waste is unknown
The report noted that more countries are adopting e-waste legislation. Today, 66% of the world's people, living in 67 countries, are covered by national e-waste management laws (up from 44% in 61 countries in 2014), an increase caused mainly by India's adoption of legislation last year. Still, only 41 countries officially quantify their e-waste generation and recycling streams. The fate of most e-waste (34.1 of 44.7 Mt) is simply unknown.
The highest per capita e-waste generators (at 17.3 kg per peson) were Australia, New Zealand and the other nations of Oceania, with only 6 percent formally collected and recycled.
