A disturbing report warns of the urgency of recycling technological objects. The mountain of electronic waste could reach 74 million tonnes per year by 2030.
The overconsumption of technological objects and planned obsolescence is not viable in the long term. This year, 5.3 billion mobile phones will be thrown away, according to a report by the international forum on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), published on October 13.
This estimate, based on global trade data, highlights the growing environmental problem of e-waste. According to research, majority of people forget to recycle their smartphone. While valuable minerals, which are not extracted from electronic waste, such as copper from wires or cobalt from rechargeable batteries, could still be exploited.
17% of electronic waste recycled
” People tend not to realize that all these seemingly insignificant objects are very valuable and together represent huge volumes globally. said Pascal Leroy, General Manager of the WEEE. Obsolete cellphones are just the tip of the iceberg of the 44.48 million tons of global e-waste generated each year that is not recycled, according to the Global e-waste monitor 2020.
There are an estimated 16 billion mobile phones in the world. In Europe, almost a third would no longer be used. Apart from smartphones, the WEEE says the mountain of electrical and electronic waste – from washing machines and toasters to computers – will reach 74 million tonnes a year by 2030.
Just over 17% of e-waste worldwide is properly recycled, but the United Nations’ International Telecommunications Union has set a goal to increase that figure to 30% by next year. There is an urgent need to manage these waste streams since they affect both human health and the environment with harmful substances. You know what you have left to do with your smartphones.
