All of our discarded toys are adding up to a big problem. According to a new report from the Waste Electronic and Electric Equipment (WEEE) Forum, one-sixth of all annual e-waste by mass is what is called “invisible” waste, since they’re tossed in the trash without most folks considering it to be a big deal the way they might with a phone or laptop. This accounts for anything with minor electronics in it, whether it’s an old pair of wired headphones or a talking doll.
All that junk is equivalent to around 9 billion kilograms, or 9 million metric tons each year. It’s hard to put that into perspective mostly because it’s an Olympus-sized mountain of trash if it were all laid out in front of you. According to the study conducted by the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, discarded vapes alone account for 42 million kilograms of discarded trash, according to the forum’s estimates. That’s the weight of six Eiffel Towers or three Brooklyn Bridges. All these figures are based on data found in UNITAR’s 2020 Global E-Waste Monitor.
According to the study, there are 763 million kilograms of mice, routers, keyboards, and other computer equipment sent to the dump on an annual basis. Another 620 million kilos of speakers are sitting in the trash heap, and there were 950 million kilograms of small cables discarded over the years that have still gone un-recycled. That’s enough copper to circle the Earth 107 times.
The problem with these theoretical extrapolations is they still can’t offer a true sense of the scale of the issue. There is no empirical study of an actual mountain for this e-waste since it is spread out all over the world. Instead, just think of every time you’ve tossed an electronic toothbrush in the trash, or thrown out those cheap, busted headphones they hand everybody on airplanes. WEEE reported that looking at six countries in Europe, a household contains an average of 74 e-products. Of these products, 13 electronic junk items are being “hoarded,” as in they’re being kept while either broken or unused. If you’ve ever been confused about how to dispose of your old mice and keyboards, know you’re not alone.
“People tend to recognize household electrical products as those they plug in and use regularly.” WEEE director-general Pascal Leroy said in the release. “But many people are confused about the waste category into which ancillary, peripheral, specialist, hobby, and leisure products fit and how to have them recycled.”
Most of these products contain toxic materials, and they need to be recycled in a specialized way. Yet there’s a whole load of products most people do not usually classify as tech getting thrown out. Around 3.2 billion kilograms of the stuff is made up of toys, from race cars to Speak and Spells. With an estimated worldwide population of 7.8 billion people on earth, there’s an electronic toy discarded every year.
This e-waste can contain crucial materials such as gold or badly needed copper. WEEE estimated that all the e-waste (including the “invisible” category but also including other prominent e-waste) sent to the dump in 2019 was worth $US57 billion, mostly made up of iron, gold, and copper components. A sixth of that, worth $US9.5 billion, was from these small electronics.
E-waste is an ongoing problem the world over, and despite the routine calls for more action on the waste front, companies big and small continue to fail to reduce plastic and electronic waste. The Forum mentioned that 55% of e-waste is collected and reported in Europe thanks to regulations, though the UN has noted that the average rate for the rest of the world is just 17%.
However, what the report doesn’t make much mention of is the tech companies developing made-to-fail products. Anybody spending much time in tech knows of the many companies pushing their sustainability initiatives. Apple recently made headlines with its own push for CO2-neutral products at its recent Wonderlust showcase. Even with more recycled materials inside products, the problem is that tech necessarily breaks, becomes outmoded, or is planned for obsolescence from the start. Without an active community of both companies and governments working to collect e-waste, the current cycle of tech will remain unsustainable.