Developing Nations Risk E-Waste Crisis

The urgency in addressing e-waste disposal is driven by the sharp rise in sales of electronic products expected over the next 10 years in countries like China and India, across continents such as Africa, and over large regions including Latin America, the U.N. said. Such imports are expected to add millions of tons of e-waste in regions where recycling efforts are inadequate to handle even current e-waste levels.

For example, most e-waste in China is improperly handled today, with much of it incinerated by backyard recyclers to recover valuable metals like gold. Such practices release steady plumes of toxic pollution and yield very low metal recovery rates compared to state-of-the-art industrial facilities.

While such grossly inadequate recycling efforts are not being properly addressed, the mountain of e-waste that exists today is growing. For example, e-waste from old computers is expected to jump from 2007 levels by 200% to 400% in South Africa and China and by 500% in India.

E-waste from discarded mobile phones will be about seven times higher than 2007 levels in China and 18 times higher in India, the report released Monday from the U.N. Environment Programme said. E-waste from televisions will be 1.5 to two times higher in China and India.

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