There are apparently 16B mobile phones in the world right now, but over 5B of them will be discarded or stashed away just this year.
In other words wasted, despite most of them containing valuable copper, gold, silver, palladium and other recyclable parts. In fact
the WEEE Forum says almost all these old mobiles will be hoarded, dumped or incinerated.
That’s a huge loss to the world’s economy, but also means significant health and environmental harm because they’re not being disposed of in a responsible way. And just the tip of the 44.48-million-ton iceberg of electronic waste generated annually that isn’t recycled of course.
The problem is recycling is most often done on a voluntary basis. The world is tackling bits and pieces of this problem, but not in any coherent way.
Australia, where the average person discards 20kgs of tech a year but where only 5% is recycled, is no different. We have voluntary e-waste collection campaigns alongside a patchwork of ways to recycle gadgets like mobiles or computers with state governments, councils, certain companies or recycling organisations.
No matter how good individuals get at it or how easy we make it, voluntary will never win the battle. It needs legislation across a range of initiatives……for example manufacturers can take responsibility for end of life disposal while also making gadgets that can easily be recycled.
Just this month the EU parliament acted. It passed a law for a single charger standard for all new smartphones, tablets and cameras from late 2024. The move is expected to generate annual savings of at least 200M euros and cut over 1K tonnes of EU electronic waste every year.
Not to mention wiping out all that anger & confusion consumers like you & me feel dealing with the army of chargers & chords we all end up buying, losing or dumping.
Cheers, John Fennell
