The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (unitar) recently released their 2024 Global E-Waste Monitor Report (pdf). We previously discussed The Global E-Waste Monitor 2020 Report in the May 2020 newsletter. Since that time, the problem has only increased in magnitude.
For more on E-Waste, see our Field Atlas entry: The Problem of Electronic Waste.
Files
Summary
The 2024 report analyzes e-waste generated and processed in 2022.
It’s important to note up front that the numbers reported herein are excluding some items that you would reasonably consider e-waste, such as batteries (which are captured in separate processing and reporting streams), electronics that are part of automotive systems, and any items related to national security (e.g., military and government systems).
Globally, e-waste has reached record highs, with the world generating 62 million metric tons of e-waste – up 82% since 2010. However, only 22.3% of e-waste produced in 2022 was documented as collected and recycled. Waste production is growing 5x faster than e-waste recycling, and the amount of e-waste that’s recycled is expected to decrease to only 20% by 2030.
| Category | Totals in billion kg (2022) | Recycling Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Small Equipment | 20.4 | 12% |
| Large Equipment (Excluding PV panels) | 15.1 | 34% |
| Temperature Exchange Equipment | 13.3 | 27% |
| Screens and Monitors | 5.9 | 25% |
| Small IT and Telecommunications Equipment | 4.9 | 22% |
| Lamps | 1.9 | 5% |
| PV Panels | 0.6 | 17% |
The report also provides insights into several useful areas, such as precious metal recovery, environmental impacts, economic impacts, and regional information. We provide excerpts from these sections in the Highlights section below.
Key Lessons
- The increase in waste generation is outpacing recycling
- Major E-waste Contributor: Vaping. And this market is only expected to keep increasing.
- “However, declaring products as repairable and/or reusable when they are not, or shipping equipment someplace where no consumer market exists, has led to an increase in the amount of e-waste worldwide, especially in regions lacking proper infrastructure for appropriate repairs, upgrading and follow-up recycling and treatment.”
- Higher weight items have better formal collection rates (washing machines, dishwashers, printers, copiers, refrigerators, freezers, ACs, heat pumps). One thought is that it’s because suppliers are obligated to pick up old units when selling/delivering new ones, and consumers are unlikely to hoard/store them. Whereas for smaller devices, there’s more onus placed on the customer – need to mail or drop off – and so they languish in storage or get dumped out of convenience. This is worth thinking about when designing recycling programs.
- Regulation matters – countries without regulations have essentially a 0% recycling rate.
Highlights
If you wanted to skip out on the full report, we think that the highlights below give you a nice snapshot of the key information contained within.
- What’s Not Counted
- E-Waste Overview
- Key Global Statistics
- Recovery of Valuable and Critical Metals
- Environmental Impact
- Economic Assessment
What’s Not Counted
Batteries and other electricity storage devices are not EEE, and most legislation globally recognizes them as separate waste streams, mainly because they require different end-of-life treatment.
When EEE is designed for and installed in an automotive apparatus, it is also not categorized as EEE because it lacks functionality as a standalone device and can only work as part of the automotive apparatus. Examples include built-in audio and entertainment systems, or satellite navigation units installed in cars, boats or airplanes.
Items that protect a country’s security, such as arms, munitions and items for military use only, are also not considered EEE in legal terms and are exempt from associated regulations
E-Waste Overview
Small equipment, such as video cameras, toys, microwave ovens and e-cigarettes (see Box 1), constitutes the largest category of e-waste in terms of mass, accounting for 20 billion kg in 2022, or almost one-third of the world’s total e-waste.
The second largest category is large equipment, excluding photovoltaic panels (15 billion kg in 2022).
Screens and monitors currently represent 10 per cent of e-waste generated (5.9 billion kg). Small IT and telecommunication equipment – such as mobile phones, GPS devices, routers, personal computers, printers and telephones – totaled 5 billion kg in 2022 (Figure 4).
The green transition and the connecting of off-grid communities will lead to a quadrupling of waste from photovoltaic panels from 0.6 billion kg in 2022 to 2.4 billion kg in 2030.
Major E-waste Contributor: Vaping
Vaping, or the use of flavored e-cigarettes, is also on the rise.The market, valued at over USD 22 billion in 2022, is expected to grow by 31 per cent annually until 2030. It is estimated that over 844 million vapes were sold in 2022. At an average weight of 50 g, this amounts to more than 42 million kg of e-cigarettes (including the weight of the batteries), many of which are disposable and become instant waste. Vapes are e-waste as they contain not only plastic but also lithium-ion batteries, a heating element and a circuit board. E-cigarettes produced in 2022 contained various metals, including roughly 130 thousand kg of lithium in the batteries, and it is obvious that recycling them will be critical to addressing the e-waste challenge.
Key Global Statistics
Worldwide, 81 countries (or 42 per cent) currently have an e-waste policy, legislation or regulation. This falls short of the ITU target of 50 per cent (97 countries) by 2023.
only 62 countries have environmental health and safety standards
In 2022, Europe was the region that generated the most e-waste (17.6 kg per capita) and had the highest documented collection and recycling rate (7.5 kg per capita), recycling 42.8 per cent of the e-waste generated. African countries had the lowest rate, with less than 1 per cent of e-waste being documented as formally collected and recycled (Figure 7).
In 2022, the regions that generated the highest amount of e-waste per capita were Europe (17.6 kg), followed by Oceania (16.1 kg) and the Americas (14.1 kg). Since these are also the regions with the most advanced collection, treatment and recycling infrastructure, they had the highest per capita collection rates (7.5 kg in Europe, 6.7 kg in Oceania and 4.2 kg in the Americas).
Countries that regulate and enforce e-waste management with legally binding instruments setting collection and recycling targets, or with e-waste legislation or policies, have an average documented formal collection and recycling rate of 25 per cent. Countries that have no such legislation in place, not even in draft form, have collection rates equal to 0 per cent.
Regulation matters!
However, declaring products as repairable and/or reusable when they are not, or shipping equipment someplace where no consumer market exists, has led to an increase in the amount of e-waste worldwide, especially in regions lacking proper infrastructure for appropriate repairs, upgrading and follow-up recycling and treatment.
Smaller e-waste items must be returned to the retailer or dropped off at special collection points; they can more easily end up either languishing in people’s cupboards for years or in normal household bins. While small equipment (toys, vacuum cleaners, microwave ovens, radios, etc.) are the largest category of e-waste in terms of mass, the recycling rates for this category remain low, at only 12 per cent. Lamps are the least recycled category of e
Recovery of Valuable and Critical Metals
Around 5.1 billion kg of used EEE/e-waste are shipped from one country to another annually. Of that total, 3.3 billion kg (65 per cent) are uncontrolled transboundary movements of used EEE/e-waste from high- to middle- and low-income countries.
In 2022, all e-waste worldwide contained 31 billion kg of metals, of which an estimated 19 billion kg were viably recovered and brought back into circulation. The metal most successful recovered was iron, which is known for its high recycling rates. Other metals, such as zinc and lead, had much lower viable recovery rates. Precious metals were present in much lower quantities but estimated to have a viable recovery of 300 thousand kg.
In the small equipment category, 1 billion kg of copper were found in cables and printed circuit boards, while temperature exchange equipment contained 500 million kg of copper from compressors and cables.
Environmental Impact
Thanks to the production of secondary raw material from e-waste recycling, 900 billion kg of ore were not excavated during primary mining and 52 billion kg of CO2-equivalent emissions were avoided.
Unmanaged e-waste has a direct impact on the environment and people’s health. Currently, 58 thousand kg of mercury and 45 million kg of plastics containing brominated flame retardants are released into the environment every year as a result of non-compliant management of e-waste.
There are currently 17 billion kg of e-waste plastics. Of that, 59 million kg contain flame retardants, an estimated 45 million kg of which are not managed under compliant conditions. Most flame retardants (80 per cent) are found in screens and monitors. They are used, for example, in computer chassis, printed wiring boards, connectors, relays, wires and cables. The recycling of plastic containing brominated flame retardants represents a major challenge because of the cost of separating the plastic containing the retardants from other plastics.
In 2022, 58t of mercury emissions were produced as a result of environmentally unsound e-waste management, according to the data collected for the Global E-waste Monitor.
Finally, another major – but often overlooked – concern is the unmanaged recycling of temperature exchange equipment, which contributes to climate change and depletion of the ozone layer.
While mercury is contained in different types of EEE, including screens and small IT devices, up to 95 per cent of mercury emissions are derived from lamps. In 2022, 58t of mercury emissions were produced as a result of environmentally unsound e-waste management, according to the data collected for the Global E-waste Monitor.
Finally, another major – but often overlooked concern is the unmanaged recycling of temperature exchange equipment, which contributes to climate change and depletion of the ozone layer.
Countries with e-waste legislation usually provide for the safe degassing and recycling or disposal of the refrigerants, but fail to collect and manage all temperature exchange equipment, and also face significant illegal scavenging and emissions from the compressors containing a significant part of the refrigerants.
Economic Assessment
In 2022, the overall gross value of the metals contained in e-waste was estimated at USD 91 billion.
Most of the potential value in secondary raw materials in e-waste lies in copper (USD 19 billion), gold (USD 15 billion) and iron (USD 16 billion). These metals can be efficiently reclaimed with high recycling rates using current e-waste management technologies and in current financial conditions.
The value of the metals recovered in e-waste (viable recovery) is estimated at USD 28 billion for all e-waste management routes in 2022.
The externalized costs amount to an estimated
- USD 36 billion in long-term socio-economic (see Box 5 for an example of gender dynamics) and environmental costs arising from the emission of the greenhouse gases that drive climate change;
- USD 22 billion representing the cost of illnesses and decreases in human capital (productivity and wages) and the average monetized value of working lives caused by mercury emissions;
- USD 19 billion arising from the release of plastic waste into the environment;
- Less than USD 1 billion arising from the release of lead into the environment and its effects on wildlife and humans.
The estimated value of the greenhouse gas emissions avoided in this way is USD 23 billion. When added to the value of USD 28 billion worth of viable recovered metals, a value of USD 51 billion is created for society by global e-waste management.
Another cost is the price of treating e-waste, which amounts to USD 10 billion worldwide. Half of that amount (USD 5 billion) is incurred by the environmentally sound treatment of e-waste, and the other half by the disposal of residual waste, by recycling outside compliant systems in upper-middle- and high-income countries, and by the informal sector in low- and lower-middle-income countries. In all, 13.7 billion kg of e-waste undergo environmentally sound treatment at a cost USD 0.36/kg; this is 3 times more than the average cost of e-waste disposed of as residual waste, recycled outside compliant recycling schemes or managed by the informal sector (USD 0.12/kg). The higher treatment costs are mostly attributable to the costs of depolluting e-waste and of auditing, administrating and attaining the minimum environmental health and safety standards associated with compliant management of e-waste.