Surfing the E-Waste Tsunami
You can now download the first report published by Caldo!
Get exclusive market insights on the world of electric and electronic waste
Learn more about how e-waste is currently being managed and what is projected for the future
Understand the steps you can take now to work towards a greener environment
Few weeks ago, I was visiting my family in Italy. While waiting for my mom to bake her delicious lasagna, I started rummaging through an old drawer. In the bottom-left corner, I found my first-ever mobile phone: a dusty Nokia 3310 (for the youngest, it's a phone that has been around since the turn of the millennium, and its legend lives on to this day). Although my older brother has enjoyed it first, I still remember my excitement the day I inherited it at the age of 13.
Lasagna is ready and this memory bubble blasts in the blink of an eye. We sit at the table and I keep thinking about my Nokia 3310. Honestly, I couldn’t imagine that this little piece of history was still around! Maybe it is because, even if I wanted to throw it away, I had no clue where? How many mobile phones like mine are abandoned in our flats? What about old computers, monitors, keyboards, printers, phones, and other digital paraphernalia?
I was so tremendously curious to understand it that I have spent the coming days investigating how electric and electronic waste is managed. As it happens sometimes, my research got bigger and bigger until I have built a university project around it.
Since I found Caldo, which strives to make the science of climate change and sustainable development accessible to everyone, I have tried to write a more “digestible” version of this project. Surfing the E-Waste Tsunami is meant to understand the matter of electric and electronic waste and stay on top of it. The key findings?
The mountain of e-waste is growing too fast.
A record 53.6 million tons of electronic and electrical waste was generated in 2019, up 21% in five years. Less than one-fifth of it is formally recycled. If no action is taken, the quantity of e-waste will more than double by 2050, to 120 million tons annually.
E-waste management is blurry.
Different regulations apply in different countries and the illegal dispatching of e-waste is still predominant.
E-waste is an “urban mine”.
The value of e-waste raw materials generated in 2019 is worth USD 57 billion. This is three times more than the annual output of the world’s silver mines and more than the GDP of most countries.
…and Tokyo 2020 medals are made from e-waste!
