Big economic opportunity being missed as ewaste piles up

8th February 2019

By: Natasha Odendaal

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

     

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The rise in electronic and electrical waste (ewaste) is resulting in a lost economic opportunity of $62.5- billion a year – a value greater than the gross domestic product of most countries – a new report shows.

Each year, about 50-million tonnes of ewaste is being discarded – with less than 20% formally recycled and 40-million tonnes discarded at landfill sites, burned or illegally traded every year.

Rapid innovation and ever-declining costs have dramatically increased access to and use of electronic devices and equipment, with the unintended consequence of creating the fastest-growing waste stream in the world.

However, there is a lot of economic value in ewaste, particularly from materials such as gold, silver, copper, platinum and palladium, besides others.

The ballooning ewaste is said to contain three times the output of the world’s silver mines, with one hundred times more gold in a tonne of ewaste than in a tonne of gold ore.

In the short term, electronic waste remains a largely unused, yet growing, valuable resource; however, nearly all of it could be recycled.

“Urban mining, where resources are extracted from complex waste streams, can now be more economically viable than extracting metal ores from the ground,” the joint report, ‘A New Circular Vision for Electronics – Time for a Global Reboot’ outlines.

While there is difficulty in forecasting the volumes of ewaste that will be generated, it is predicted that the total yearly ewaste volumes will surpass 52-million tonnes by 2021, as the growth in the use of electronic and electrical devices continues.

Australia, China, the European Union (EU), Japan, North America and Korea produce most of the world’s ewaste.

Each year, every person in the US and Canada produces roughly 20 kg of ewaste, while in the EU the figure stands at 17.7 kg, compared with each of the 1.2- billion citizens in Africa generating an average of just 1.9 kg of ewaste.

The joint report calls for an overhaul of the current electronics system, with the aim of supporting international efforts to address ewaste challenges.

“A new vision for the production and consumption of electronic and electrical goods is needed. It is easy for ewaste to be framed as a postconsumer problem, but the issue encompasses the life cycle of the devices everyone uses,” it highlights.

Designers, manufacturers, investors, traders, miners, raw material producers, consumers and policymakers, besides others, all have a critical role to play in reducing waste, retaining value within the system and extending the economic and physical life of an item, as well as its ability to be repaired, recycled and reused.

“The possibilities are endless.”

In line with this, seven United Nations (UN) entities formed the E-waste Coalition, supported by the World Economic Forum and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, to drive a vision for electronics based on the circular economy and the need for systematic collaboration with major brands, small and medium-sized enterprises, academia, trade unions, civil society and associations in a deliberative process to reorientate the system.

The coalition comprises the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the UN Environment Programme, the UN Industrial Development Organisation (Unido), the UN Institute for Training and Research, the UN University (UNU) and the secretariats of the Basel and Stockholm Conventions.

“The ITU has been raising awareness and guiding efforts to reduce and rethink ewaste since 2011. So I am delighted to see that a movement to promote a circular economy for electronics is now gaining ground. Together, with newly created partnerships such as the UN E-waste Coalition, we can transform waste into wealth and deliver development benefits to all,” says ITU secretary-general Houlin Zhao.

“Thousands of tonnes of ewaste is disposed of by the world’s poorest workers in the worst of conditions, putting their health and lives at risk. “We need better ewaste strategies and green standards, as well as closer collaboration between governments, employers and unions, to make the circular economy work for both people and the planet,” adds ILO director-general Guy Ryder.

To capture the global value of materials in ewaste and create global circular value chains, the report also points to the use of new technology to create service business models, better product tracking and manufacturer or retailer take-back programmes.

The report notes that material efficiency, recycling infrastructure and scaling up the volume and quality of recycled materials to meet the needs of electronics supply chains will all be essential for future production.

Further, the electronics sector requires the right policy mix, managed in the right way, to ultimately create millions of decent jobs worldwide.

The coalition points out that considerable work has already been done on the ground, including the $2-million joint investment by the Nigerian government, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and UN Environment to establish a formal ewaste recycling industry in Nigeria.

The new investment will leverage over $13-million in additional financing from the private sector.

Currently, up to 100 000 people work in the informal ewaste sector in Nigeria.

“This investment will help to create a system which formalises these workers, giving them safe and decent employment, while capturing the latent value in Nigeria’s 500 000 t of ewaste,” the ILO highlights.

Further, a Unido ewaste project, cofunded by the GEF, aims to support sustainable economic and social growth in 13 countries across the Latin American and Caribbean region.

The circular-economy-based initiative includes the upgrading of ewaste recycling facilities, helping to establish national ewaste management strategies and enhancing regional cooperation.

“UNU and its worldwide partners’ research and advocacy of sustainable ewaste practices have substantially contributed to placing the issue of electronic waste on the political agenda. “But current efforts are insufficient to address this fast-growing problem. We need to develop innovative policies,” UNU rector and UN under-secretary general David Malone says.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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