As per a report given out by UN on Thursday, about 50 million tonnes of e-waste is produced each year. This is more than the weight of airplanes. If the value of the electronic and electric waste is taken into consideration, the amount stands at 62.5 billion dollars. This overall amount is more than the GDP of many countries. But if recycling is concerned, only 20 percent of it is recycled.
Most of the people, about 60000 from China itself are working towards disposing off these E-waste. Disposing these poses a significant risk of the physical and mental health.
The Coming together of organisations to reduce e-waste
Seven organisation of UN came together along with world Economic Forum and World Business Council for Sustainable Development to address the issue of growing electronic waste and to take steps in solving the issue. All of them have been working towards solving the issue.
E-Waste value equal to GDP
The major concern for this issue is that the value of the waste is more than the GDP of many countries. Therefore, all of them are working towards collaborating and solving the problem of E-waste. The entities may come in collaboration with large association, trade unions, brands and civil society to make efforts towards reducing the huge amount of waste each year.
Reports suggestion
Davos related a report “A new circular vision for electronics — Time for a global reboot” that stated all the different technologies such as cloud computing are helping in ‘dematerialisation’ of waste towards the electronic industry.
To understand the global value of these E-waste and to increase the global chain value, the reports suggest that using technologies can help to prepare new business models along with better programming for product enhancement and manufacturing.
The reports suggested that using these E-waste for the material efficiency and recycling the large amount of waste can be helpful in the near future. All these will help to meet the daily requirements of the electronic supply chains, which will eventually be efficient for future production of the products.
The recycling of waste for manufacturing new products can be extremely efficient in the coming time if the new policies are implemented and managed in the right way. The electronic sector would eventually see a rise in the job opportunities with such new policies.
Teaming up of organisations
Various organizations have come together to support the cause. Most of the entities include the following
- United Nations Institute for Training and Research
- United Nations University and Secretariats of the Basel and Stockholm
- International Labour Organization (ILO)
- UN Environment
- United Nations Industrial Development Organisation
- International Telecommunication Union
As per the reports of International Labour Organisation, more than 100000 people in Africa work in the E-waste sector. These people in Nigeria works towards the informal disposal of the waste.
If proper method are taken, to ensure the employment opportunities and safety measures, it can prove to be extremely efficient for the workers. It may also be helpful in using the value of the 500000 tonnes of E-waste produced in Nigeria.
