Global General

Developing countries face health problem caused by e-waste

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-02-22 16:17

BALI, Indonesia: Developing countries face health problem caused by electronic waste (e-waste) dumped by rich ones, a UN official said here on Monday.

"Developing countries will also face rising environmental damage and health problems if e-waste recycling is left to vagaries of informal sector," Achim Steiner, the United Nations' Under Secretary and the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program told a press conference in Nusa Dua of Indonesia's Bali province.

He added that boosting developing country e-waste recycling rates can have the potential to generate decent employment, cut greenhouse gas emission and recover a wide range of valuable metals, including silver, gold, palladium, copper and indium.

"By acting now and planning forward, many countries can turn an e-challenge into an e-opportunity," said Steiner.

Steiner said that the aim of the report titled "Recycling from E-Waste to Resources" was not to prevent people to buy electronic equipment any more.

"That's not our goal. We just want to say that this report gives new urgency to establishing ambitious, formal and regulated processes for collecting and managing e-waste via setting up of large, efficient facilities," said Steiner.

The report cites a variety of sources to illustrate the e-waste problem, adding that global e-waste generation is growing by about 40 million tons a year.

It also said that manufacturing mobile phone and personal computers consume three percent of the gold and silver mined worldwide each year, 13 percent of palladium and 15 percent of cobalt.

Meanwhile, it said modern electronics contain up to 60 different element, many valuable, some hazardous and some both.

The report also said that carbon dioxide emissions from mining and production of copper and precious and rare metals used in electrical and electronic equipment are estimated at over 23 million tons.

Given the infrastructure expense and technology skills required to create proper facilities for efficient and environmentally sound metal recovery, the report suggests facilitating export of critical e-scrap fractions like circuit boards or batteries from smaller countries to OECD-level, certified end-processors.