More than 5 billion of the 16 billion mobile phones around the world will likely be discarded or hidden by 2022, experts said on Thursday.
The WEEE Research Consortium found that stacked flat on top of each other, many unused phones would travel 50,000 kilometers (30,000 miles), a hundred times farther than the International Space Station.
Despite being valuable gold, copper, silver, palladium and other renewable components, almost all of these unwanted materials will be stored, thrown away or burned, causing health and environmental damage.
“Smartphones are one of the electronic products of greatest concern to us,” said Pascal Leroy, director general of the WEEE Forum, a non-profit association representing forty-six producer responsibility organizations.
“If we don’t recycle the rare materials in them, we have to take them out to countries like China or Congo,” Leroy told JEE News.
According to the 2020 Global E-Waste Monitor, discarded cell phones are just the tip of the iceberg of 44.48-million tons of global electronic waste generated annually that is not recycled.
According to a survey conducted in six European countries from June to September 2022, many of the 5 billion phones taken out of circulation will be stored rather than thrown in the trash.
This happens when households and businesses forget cell phones in drawers, closets, cabinets or garages instead of bringing them in for repair or recycling.
The average European household currently owns up to five kilograms (8 pounds) of e-devices per person, the report found.
According to the new findings, 46% of the 8,775 households surveyed cited potential future use as the main reason for storing small electrical and electronic devices.
Another 15% hoard their gadgets with the intention of selling or giving them away, while 13% keep them for “sentimental value”.
Societal Challenge
“People don’t realize that all these seemingly insignificant items have a lot of value, and together represent a huge volume on a global scale,” said Pascal Leroy.
“But e-waste will never be collected voluntarily because of the high cost. Hence legislation is necessary.”
This month, the European Union Parliament passed a new law that requires USB-C to be the only charger standard for all new smartphones, tablets and cameras from the end of 2024.
The move is expected to save at least 200 million euros ($195 million) annually and reduce EU electronic waste by more than a thousand tons each year.
According to Kees Balde, senior scientist at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), legislation in Europe has increased e-waste collection rates in the region compared to other parts of the world.
“At the European level, 50-55% of e-waste is collected or recycled,” Balde told JEE News. “In low-income countries, our estimates are as low as 5% and sometimes as low as 1%.”
At the same time, thousands of tonnes of e-waste from rich countries – including members of the European Union – are sent to developing countries every year, increasing their recycling burden.
At the receiving end, there is often a lack of financial resources to treat e-waste safely: hazardous substances such as mercury and plastics can contaminate soil, pollute water and enter the food chain. are, as happened near Ghana’s e-waste dump site.
A 2019 study by IPEN and the Basel Action Network in the West African country found levels of chlorinated dioxins in eggs from chickens stored near the Egbogbloshi dump site near central Accra, which in Europe 220 times the permissible levels.
“We have moved mountains in Europe,” said Pascal Leroy, director of the WEEE Forum. “The challenge now is to transfer the knowledge to other parts of the world.”
