E-Waste Poses Growing Threat Around the World
Friday, February 26, 2010

As if existing air and water pollution aren’t enough to worry about for countries like China, India and others, waste from consumer and home electronics is threatening to become a huge problem unto itself. A new report from the United Nations Environment Programme examined 11 countries and their rate of accumulating e-waste, which includes everything from computers to cell phones to refrigerators. The findings showed China’s collection of old computers will jump by 200% to 400% by 2020, while its discarded cell phones will increase sevenfold. India is looking at its e-waste from phones to increase 18 times and its computer junk to climb by 500%.
In China, a large portion of e-waste is incinerated in order to recover valuable components, such as gold, but this method also creates toxic air pollution.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Hazardous E-Waste Surging in Developing Countries (Science Daily)
Recycling – From E-Waste To Resources (UNEP) (pdf)
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