Electronic waste and its many personalities
Electronic waste (e-waste) is one of the fastest growing waste streams. Still, only a minor fraction of 22.3% is formally collected an recycled.
Part of the problem are the many "personalities", so the different forms, e-waste can have. The diversity of e-waste contributes to the low recycling rates.
Why? Because a fridge is huge and a phone contains sensitive data which means that different devices not only differ in their composition of metals and rare earths but also (!) in how they have to be treated due to how they are used. That is why streamlined sorting (sometimes with the help of AI) becomes more important- as a hope to separate the different forms of e-waste more easily to then, recycle more of it,
If you are interested in the different forms of e-waste, I can strongly recommend to dive deeper into it via the "Global E-Waste Monitor" of UNITAR (which is also the source of the picture attached).
#e-waste #recycling #circulareconomy #sdg12
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