E-waste rising dangerously in Asia: UN study

Author: AFP

MANILA: Electronic waste is rising sharply across Asia as higher incomes allow hundreds of millions of people to buy smartphones and other gadgets, with serious consequences for human health and the environment, according to a UN study released Sunday.

So-called e-waste in Asia has jumped 63 percent in five years, the report by the United Nations University said, as it warned of a need for most nations across the region to improve recycling and disposal methods. “For many countries that already lack infrastructure for environmentally sound e-waste management, the increasing volumes are a cause for concern,” said Ruediger Kuehr, the report’s co-author and head of the UN University’s Sustainable Cycles Programme. For many years, China and some other parts of Asia have been a dumping ground for discarded electronics from the developed world, recycling the waste in often unsafe but ultracheap backyard factories.

But the report said that in recent years, Asia has rapidly emerged as a major source of electronic waste, due to increasingly affluent consumers buying items such as phones, tablets, refrigerators, personal computers and televisions.

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