Electronic waste: where do WEEE go?
What comes first to you mind when I say “electronic waste” or “e-waste”? I bet you’d say these are deleted e-mails, discarded documents from your computer that are buried somewhere on the vast expanses of digital fields or stored forever on some shady servers… Did I hit the bull’s eye?
Ever since I started researching this topic, 4 out of 5 people would give me this reply.
In reality e-waste is an overarching name for waste related to electrical and electronic equipment, such as computers, mobile phones, television sets, and refrigerators. It contains toxic materials (such as mercury, lead and brominated flame-retardants), it may as well contain precious metals (gold, copper and nickel) and rare materials of strategic value (like indium and palladium). These precious and heavy metals can be recovered, recycled, and used as valuable source of secondary raw materials. It has been documented [“On the e-waste trail” movie by Cosima Donnoritzer] that e-wastes are shipped to developing countries where they are often not managed in an environmentally sound manner, thus posing a serious threat to both human health and the environment.
My first acquaintance with this theme happened when I was desperately looking for a MSc research topic. Everybody seemed to be choosing cool subjects of research and finding amazing (sometimes even remote) places to conduct them. I, on the contrary, was spending my time in the 9 sq. m. student residence room, reading books on my Kindle until.. Until it suddenly stopped working. I look at it and — hop la! — had my “Eurika!” moment.
Electronic book, smartphone, laptop, basically any other electric & electronic item — you have certainly seen this ‘don’t-put-in-the-regular-trash-bin’ sign on it, but
Have you ever wondered where does it all go after you don’t need it anymore?
I hadn’t.
But I thought it would be at least a little fun adventure to track my Kindle to its final destination, at most — I could really contribute to a global research of this massively underrated topic. Fast forward one month after I had the idea, I was invited to Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada to work under the supervision of Josh Lepawsky, the author of Reassembling Rubbish project (check the infographics, it’s awesome).
I was doing an LCA — Life Cycle Assessment — of a discarded item, and my own Kindle served its last service to me with an unimaginable dignity. I have as well checked how the proper e-waste recycling factory works (thanks Ecycle Solutions Montreal!), and got the idea about extended producer responsibility, conflict metals, illegal e-waste trade and dumping in various regions of the world (Africa, China, Saudi Arabia — surprise surprise!) and many more exciting and troubling things that would be subjects of next notes.
Today I would like to briefly touch on how we produce that much electronic waste and how to minimize individual impact.
So, let’s start with maths:
A staggering 1.3. billion tonnes of food is produced each year to feed the world’s 7 billion people. Yet, according to the Food & Agricuture Organization (FAO), around US $1 trillion of that food goes to waste. With 200,000 new people added every day, the world can ill afford to waste such a massive amount of food.
Global waste, however, doesn’t stop at food. Consumers are increasingly buying products that are wrapped in plastics and paper. Much of this packaging — and eventually the products themselves — will end up in landfills. This trend has both health and environmental consequences, especially given the rapid rise of hazardous waste such as electronics.The global waste market sector — from collection to recycling — is estimated to be US $410 billion a year (according to UNEP 2011 ‘Towards a Green Economy: Pathways to Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication’), excluding a very large informal sector.
About 41.8 million metric tonnes of e-waste was generated in 2014 and partly handled informally, including illegally. This could amount to as much as USD 18.8 billion annually.
With rising global population, urbanization and consumption, the amount of waste continues to increase, providing vast environmental, social, health, economic and even criminal challenges of unknown proportions.
Ok, numbers are great, thanks for all the confusion, you’d say, but hey, what’s the whole fuss about?
The thing is, your smartphone contains at least 20 hazardous substances, 13 non-hazardous (like steel & ferrous metals, incl.so called “conflict” 3TG group [Tantalum, Tin, Tungsten, & Gold] coming from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and even Calcium (ha-ha), liquid crystal polymer, plastics, glass & ceramics. The last three being the least of the evil.
I can’t hide it anymore, it’s time for you to meet Johnny.
Johnny has no Internet, he sends and receives texts and calls, has a calendar, alarm, & calculator. Johnny doesn’t let other people bother you for nonsense via WhatsApp, Viber, Telegram, Facebook, Instagram and the rest of the application’s pleiad.
Johnny is the star.
At the bars, conferences, public places, my workplace after all, Johnny is more popular than any other person around (including myself, meh). And what’s important too — Johnny doesn’t contain even the third of the elements that are found in modern phones.
Everybody loves Johnny!
Now, jokes aside, I realize this is just a drop in the ocean, but you still can consider following the steps I outline below to make your life more environmentally-sound:
- Re-evaluate. Do you really need that extra gadget? Try finding one device with multiple functions and stick to it
- Extend the life of your electronics. Buy a case, keep it clean, and avoid overcharging the battery (it will serve you longer)
- Buy environmentally-friendly electronics. Look for products labelled Energy Star or certified by the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT)
- Donate used electronics to social programs. However, the life span of second-hand goods is very short, and within a couple of years it becomes discarded waste anyway.
- Reuse large electronics
- Recycle electronics and batteries
Little action of a group of people, each doing something individually, is way more valuable than a strong action of one person doing everything.
Tell me in the comments how do you combat electronic waste?
P.S. This was only part 1 from the series on WEEE. In the next issue I will talk about illegal trafficking of e-waste, it’s main destinations in the world and what to do about it. And then part 3 will be devoted to the actual life cycle of the discarded item.
Stay tuned!
