e waste
Credit: Choo Yut Shing/Flickr
In Vietnam's bustling e-waste market, informal recyclers play a vital role
The informal recycling market in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City showcases how e-waste is managed, with workers salvaging what they can to mitigate environmental harm.
Aniruddha Ghosal and Jae C. Hong report for the Associated Press.
In short:
- E-waste is filling up landfills at an alarming rate, with Asian countries generating almost half of the 62 million metric tons produced globally in 2022.
- Despite rising e-waste, proper recycling systems are scarce, leaving informal workers to collect waste, exposing them to health hazards.
- Collaboration between informal and formal sectors is seen as a potential solution to improve efficiency and safety in e-waste management.
Key quote:
“We are currently generating e-waste at an unprecedented rate.”
— Garam Bel, e-waste officer at the U.N.’s International Telecommunication Union
Why this matters:
Managing e-waste is crucial for public health and environmental safety, and integrating informal recyclers into the formal sector could help optimize resource recovery while protecting workers from hazardous conditions. Read more: Electronic waste from just this year will outweigh the Great Wall of China.
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Credit: bakalusha/Big Stock Photo
Recycling critical metals from electronics could ease mining impacts
Recycling e-waste offers a vital alternative to mining for metals needed for green technologies, reducing environmental damage.
In short:
- The latest Global E-Waste Monitor highlights the vast quantities of metals like copper and aluminum in discarded electronics, with only a fraction currently recycled.
- Essential for low-carbon technologies, these metals could significantly offset the demand currently met through environmentally damaging mining.
- Improved recycling technologies and policies are crucial for increasing the recovery of rare and valuable metals from e-waste.
Key quote:
“There is very little reporting on the recovery of metals [from e-waste] globally. We felt that it was our duty to get more facts on the table.”
— Kees Baldé, lead report author
Why this matters:
Metals like copper and aluminum, when improperly disposed of, can leach into soil and water, potentially harming wildlife and impacting human health through the food and water supply. Recycling e-waste can mitigate these risks. By recovering metals like copper and aluminum from old electronics, we not only reduce the environmental harm but also decrease the need to extract raw materials, which often involves ecologically and socially harmful mining practices.
In 2021, electronic waste from outweighed the Great Wall of China.
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| BigStock Photo ID: 475003733 |
| Copyright: Macrovector SLU |
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