Indicating a major health and environmental crisis, the amount of electronic waste produced every year is set to grow to 120 million tonnes by 2050 from 50 million tonnes currently — which already weighs more than all the commercial planes ever built, a report said.<\/p>\n
In the report released here in collaboration with the UN-E-Waste Coalition, the World Economic Forum (WEF) said the value of electronic waste produced every year is a staggering USD 62 billion already, which is worth three times the total silver production.<\/p>\n
It also said there is 100 times more gold in a tonne of mobile phones than in a tonne of gold ore.<\/p>\n
The report said the world is on the brink of a major health and environmental crisis, as the annual amount of electronic waste produced each year looks set to grow further to 120 million tonnes by 2050.<\/p>\n
With only 20 per cent of the electronics and plastics formally recycled each year, this looming health and environmental catastrophe also represents a unique USD 62 billion economic opportunity, the report said.<\/p>\n
To safeguard the environment, protect human health and deliver sustainable, inclusive growth, the Nigerian government, Global Environment Facility (GEF) and UN Environment have joined Dell, HP, Microsoft and Philips to launch a USD 15 million investment to create a formal e-waste recycling industry in Nigeria.<\/p>\n
The partnership is convened on the World Economic Forum’s Platform for Accelerating the Circular Economy.<\/p>\n
Funding comprises a USD 2 million GEF investment, which will be leveraged for an additional USD 13 million private-sector co-financing. With 100,000 people estimated to be informally working in the e-waste sector in Nigeria alone, the investment will not only unlock economic growth, but also provide safe and decent employment for workers.<\/p>\n
At a global level, seven UN entities have come together, supported by the WEF and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development to better address the e-waste challenge.<\/p>\n
In the joint report, they called for a new vision for electronics based on the circular economy, and the need for collaboration with major brands, small and medium-sized enterprises, academia, trade unions, civil society and associations in a deliberative process to change the entire system.<\/p>\n
Another report by the WEF in collaboration with Accenture Strategy also outlined a future in which Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies provide a tool to unlock the value of e-waste. This visualises an “internet of materials” that could lead to better product tracking, take-back and recycling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Indicating a major health and environmental crisis, the amount of electronic waste produced every year is set to grow to 120 million tonnes by 2050 from 50 million tonnes currently — which already weighs more than all the commercial planes ever built, a report said. In the report released here in collaboration with the UN-E-Waste Coalition, the World Economic Forum (WEF) said the value of electronic waste produced every year is a staggering USD 62 billion already, which is worth three times the total silver production. It also said there is 100 times more gold in a tonne of mobile […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[229],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-220324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-civil-aviation"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220324\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}