Global e-waste up 21% in five years, and recycling isn’t keeping up

Each year, the total amount of e-waste (electric and electronic equipment) the world uses grows by 2.5 million tonnes. Phones, radios, toys, laptops – if it has a power or battery supply it’s likely to join a growing mountain of “e-waste” after use.

In 2019 alone, the world generated 53.6 million tonnes of e-waste. That’s about 7.3 kilograms per person and equivalent in weight to 350 cruise ships. Asia produced the lion’s share – 24.9 million tonnes – followed by the Americas (13.1 million tonnes) and Europe (12 million tonnes), while Africa and Oceania generated 2.9 and 0.7 million tonnes respectively.

By 2030, the global total is likely to swell to 74.7 million tonnes, almost a doubling of the annual amount of new e-waste in just 16 years. This makes it the world’s fastest growing domestic waste stream, fuelled mainly by more people buying electronic products with shorter life cycles and fewer options for repair.

These products can help improve living standards, and it’s good that more and more people can afford them. But growing global demand is outpacing our capacity to recycle or dispose of electronic products safely. Once they’re obsolete and discarded, these products can end up accumulating in the environment, polluting habitats and harming people and wildlife.

E-waste recycling

Only 17.4% of 2019’s e-waste was formally collected and recycled. Since 2014, the amount of recycled e-waste has only grown by 1.8 million tonnes each year. The total amount of e-waste generated increased by 9.2 million tonnes over the same period. At the same time, the amount of undocumented e-waste is increasing.

In new research, we found that Europe has the highest collection and recycling rate, covering about 42.5% of the total e-waste generated in 2019. Asia ranked second at 11.7%, the Americas and Oceania were similar at 9.4% and 8.8%, and Africa had the lowest rate at 0.9%. What happened with the rest (82.6%) of the world’s e-waste generated in 2019 isn’t clear.

In high income countries, around 8% of e-waste is thought to be discarded in waste bins, while 7%-20% is exported. In lower income countries, the picture is less clear, as e-waste is mostly managed informally.

Without a reliable system of waste management, toxic substances contained in e-waste, such as mercury, brominated flame retardants, chlorofluorocarbons and hydrochlorofluorocarbons, are more likely to be released into the environment and harm the people who live, work and play in e-waste scrapyards.