FEATURE
GREEN THINKING
A waste
SPECIAL
OF TIME? The unabated use of technology to run our daily lives has led to the global scourge of e-waste. This major environmental issue requires solutions, and fast – by Michelle Sturman
www.opi.net
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hat weighs 53.6 million metric tons (Mt) and possesses a raw material value of around $57 billion per year? The answer is Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) – more commonly known as e-waste – and it is the fastest growing waste stream worldwide. According to The Global E-waste Monitor 2020: Quantities, Flows and the Circular Economy Potential, a mere 17.4% of the 53.6 million Mt of e-waste generated in 2019 was officially documented as properly collected and recycled. Additionally, the total weight (excluding photovoltaic panels) of worldwide electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) increases by 2.5 million Mt on an annual basis. By 2030, the global generation of WEEE is projected to grow to 74.7 million Mt – almost double that of 2014. There are three primary drivers of e-waste. The first is consumption of EEE. This is likely to rise this year because of COVID-19 and the purchasing of items like laptops, tablets and desktop computers due to work-from-home guidelines and the increase in online education. The second is the shorter lifecycle of EEE, especially for items such as smartphones. The third is the scarcity of repair options available for electronic and electrical items – it is often less expensive and more straightforward for consumers to replace rather than fix equipment. This has led to the hoarding of EEE within home and office environments. The proliferation of smart devices linked to IoT is increasingly exacerbating the problem as EEE moves into sectors such as furniture, clothing, transport, health, security and energy. At the moment, there are six categories of e-waste: temperature exchange equipment, screens and monitors, lamps, large equipment, small equipment, and small IT and telecommunication equipment.
WHAT A WASTE Last year, three-quarters of global e-waste was composed of small, large and temperature exchange equipment, with the latter increasing the most in total weight generated since 2014. Screens and monitors have registered a slight decrease (-1%), but this is attributed to the replacement of heavy CRT monitors with lighter flat panel displays. In terms of the regional distribution of all this waste, Asia produced the highest quantity in 2019 at 24.9 million Mt, followed by the Americas (13.1 million Mt), Europe (12 million Mt), Oceania (2.9 million Mt) and Africa (0.7 million Mt). However, in terms of collection and recycling rates, Europe came out top in 2019 with 42.5%, with second-placed Asia considerably lower at 11.7%. The Americas and Oceania were not far behind (9.4% and 8.8% respectively), while Africa suffered the lowest rate at 0.9%. As of today, only 78 countries have adopted an e-waste policy, legislation or regulation while the recycling infrastructure differs greatly between high, middle and low-income nations. Broadly speaking, the richer a country, the better developed its waste recycling set-up. Despite this, it is estimated that around 8% of e-waste is still thrown into standard waste bins – typically small equipment and small IT electronics – where it is subsequently landfilled or incinerated. Often, discarded items that can be reused are shipped to low or middle-income countries and an alarming amount of electronic scrap continues to be exported illegally or stolen.
TIPS FOR RESELLERS
E-waste is a significant global problem, so every action taken to help reduce it counts. With so many obsolete or broken electronic goods sitting in offices and homes, resellers can become an indispensable partner for the responsible reuse, repair or recycling of these unwanted items. They can link up with charities that can repair goods, partner with reputable recycling firms, investigate manufacturer and wholesaler take-back programmes and become a local collector, and check municipality guidelines to see how to dispose and recycle e-waste.
