E-Waste to Approach 50 Million Tonnes

According to the United Nations University, 41.8 million tonnes of electronic waste (including household appliances) was generated last year – up 2 million tonnes from 2013. Less than a sixth was recycled or made available for re-use. Around 7% came from mobile phones, PCs, calculators and printers. In volume terms, most came from the USA, China, Japan, Germany and India – but, per-capita, Norway was the worst offender (28.4kg per capita), followed by Switzerland (26.3kg), Iceland (26.1kg), Denmark (24kg) and Britain (23.5kg). The UNU warned that the world could approach 50 million tonnes of e-waste by 2018.