E-SCRAP
17recyclinginternational.com | January/February | 2021
‘Even during this unusual Covid-19 period, we would do well to remember that the
e-waste problem is not solved,’ insists Dr rüdiger Kühr of the united Nations university.
Fellow speakers at the virtual E-Waste World Conference and Expo agree that this is not a
good time to relax the focus on the best practices for electronics recycling.
Global E-waste Monitor 2020 shows
clearly that the global volume of
e-scrap continues to rise steadily.
Co-author and conference speaker Dr
Rüdiger Kühr says 2019 was a record
year with 53.6 million tonnes (7.3kg
per capita) generated worldwide.
‘This is up more than nine million
tonnes in five years.’ By 2030, the fig-
ure is expected to exceed 74 million
tonnes, twice as much as in 2014.
Billions wasted
Kühr emphasises that the largely
untapped value of the worldwide
e-waste mountain was estimated at
US$ 57 billion (EUR 47 billion) in 2019:
‘That corresponds to no less than 25
million tonnes of iron, aluminium, cop-
per and precious metal scrap available
for recycling.’ A further four million
tonnes of raw materials, worth US$ 10
billion, could be recovered if the
industry achieved an ideal scenario.
‘Sadly, we’re far away from that sce-
nario today,’ he says.
Indeed, the global recycling rate for
e-scrap, hovering around 18%, is not
impressive. Africa manages less than
1%, Asia recycles 11.7%, the Americas
9.5% and Oceania 8.8%. Europe
scores the highest with 42%. The UN
hopes to push countries to an ambi-
tious global target of 30% by 2023
but this will require hard work across
the entire industry.
More policies, More sales
A hopeful sign is that 71% of the
world population is now covered
some sort of e-waste regulation.
‘That’s 78 countries but, in many
cases, these policies are not legally
binding,’ Kühr laments. Even so, it’s a
step up from the 61 countries with
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