Electronic waste (or e-waste) is the fastest growing solid waste stream in the world.
In 2019, the World Health Organisation estimated that more than 53 million tonnes of e-waste were produced globally.
Worldwide lockdowns in response to the COVID-19 pandemic drove work, education, and social interaction online in 2020. This further intensified the problem. Used to bridge the gaps created by the lockdown, the pandemic sparked a jump in e-waste. Dubbed “a ticking time bomb” by researchers at UCL, this huge growth in devices is poised to further accelerate the crisis.
Solving this problem in an increasingly technology-dependent world is a complex and challenging prospect. There are no easy answers.
E-waste out of control
E-waste is a bigger problem now than it has ever been. Around the world, just 17.4% of discarded electronics are collected and properly recycled each year.
“Our electronics consumption keeps increasing without any consideration for our planet’s capacity. E-waste is piling up – not being reused, not being repaired,” says Fanny Rateau, Programme Manager at the European Environmental Bureau’s (EEB) Environmental Coalition on Standards. According to data gathered by the EEB, the European Union (which has some of the stricter regulatory frameworks related to e-waste in the world) fails to collect more than half the e-waste it produces each year.
Fynn Hauschke, an EEB policy officer for circular economy and waste, adds that “Almost every EU Member State fails to reach e-waste collection targets,” which causes “considerable environmental impacts and lost opportunities for reuse and recycling.”
In the UK, a report from 2020 by the EAC found that the average household had 20 unused electronic items at home. It also highlighted the growth of “disposable” electronics like single use vapes as a “huge and growing stream of hard-to-recycle waste.”
E-waste is not an individual issue
Many e-waste reports tend to frame the issue in terms of the individual. In an article for the Journal of Cleaner Production, for example, authors Md Tasbirul Islam et al argue as much. “E-waste often ends up in landfill due to improper disposal of e-waste with household waste by consumers,” they observe.
It’s true that improper disposal of electronics, as well as consumer buying habits focused on owning current generation devices are, on the face of it, responsible for the creation of e-waste. However, the rhetoric bears the hauntological stamp of carbon footprint marketing campaigns championed by the oil and gas industry in the 2000s. Corporate (and government) interests have a proven track record of shifting culpability onto the consumer to conceal their role in unsustainable practices.
For example, reports often frame the amounts of e-waste generated in terms of kilos per capita. In Europe last year, the EEB calculated that the biggest consumers of electrical and electronic equipment per inhabitant were the Netherlands (35.1 kg), Germany (31.3 kg), Denmark (30.7 kg), France (30.5 kg) and Belgium (29.2 kg). At first glance, it might seem as though the e-waste crisis is a product of consumer culture, even negligence.
The big three e-waste drivers
Dig a little deeper, however, and a more troubling picture begins to emerge. It quickly becomes apparent that consumers “improperly disposing” of their electronics are caught between much larger forces.
These forces include governments failing to set up reliable, effective systems for recycling, repairing, and safely disposing of electronics. Additionally, the increasingly short lifespans of consumer goods; and the worldwide campaign by corporations against the repairability of their products are also driving the worsening e-waste crisis.
Government inaction undercuts recycling efforts
In the UK, the authors of the recent e-waste audit said they were “disappointed” that, while the UK government accepted 22 out of 27 of their recommendations. They added that “the measures on which the government is currently consulting do not appear to implement any of them.”
Hauschke argues that “there is an urgent need for more consumer-friendly separate collection systems.” The EEB report advises the European Commission to “rapidly overhaul” the current directives governing e-waste disposal. Current gaps in data collection point to e-waste still being illegally disposed of as residual waste or illegal exports.
Planned and negligent obsolescence.
Another reason that e-waste is growing is that devices today are manufactured more cheaply with less emphasis on longevity. Multiple studies have identified that the lifespans of electronic devices are getting shorter. In 2015, a report commissioned by the German environment agency found that the proportion of all units sold to replace a defective appliance grew from 3.5% in 2004 to 8.3% in 2012. The report’s authors deemed this a “remarkable” increase.
In 2020, a European Environment Agency report found something similar. Electronics like smartphones, televisions, washing machines and vacuum cleaners they studied had shorter lifespans than expected. On average these devices worked for at least 2.3 years less than their “designed or desired lifetimes.”
“Producers of electronics must bear more responsibility for the environmental problems caused by their products,” argues Barbara Metz, Executive Director of Environmental Action Germany. “Producers offering short-lived and poorly repairable equipment should also bear higher costs.”
Fight for your right to repair
The issue of repairability dovetails with this issue. Last year, landmark legislation in the EU granted consumers the “right to repair” their consumer goods.
“Discarded products are often viable goods that can be repaired but are often tossed prematurely,” notes the EU commission. The commision adds that the premature disposal of goods like washing machines and televisions results in massive amounts of waste. This improper disposal causes 261 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in the EU every year.
Right to repair faced strong opposition. The idea was resisted by an economic landscape where many manufacturers often maintained a monopoly over even simple replacement parts. Not only that, but these companies frequently only allowed their authorised service technicians to repair equipment.
“We are no longer able to fix the things we buy,” Gay Gordon-Byrne, director of The Repair Association, said. While right to repair may have progressed in Europe, the movement faces visceral opposition elsewhere. For now, in many parts of the world, corporate interests driven by the desire to sell more cheaply made, disposable e-waste in waiting are the ones who decide who can repair their products and even what is considered irreparable.
CLICK HERE to read Part Two of our e-waste series, which explores the human, environmental, and economic cost of e-waste. CLICK HERE for Part Three, investigating some of the more interesting solutions to the problem.
- Sustainability Technology
