Latin America. Seven United Nations agencies are working together, with support from the World Economic Forum and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), to call for a review of the system currently governing the electronics sector to endorse international efforts to address the challenges posed by e-waste.
The report calls for systematic collaboration with major manufacturers, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), academia, trade unions, society and various associations within the framework of a deliberative process to reorient this system and reduce the amount of electronic waste generated each year, the economic value of which exceeds the GDP of most countries.
Approximately 50 million tons of electronic and electrical waste (cyber waste) are discarded each year, the total weight of which is greater than that of all commercial aircraft manufactured so far. Its economic value is $62.5 billion, higher than the GDP of most countries.
Less than 20% of that amount of waste is officially recycled. Millions of people around the world (more than 600,000 in China alone) work informally in e-waste disposal, in most cases in working conditions that adversely affect both human health and the environment.
The report "A New Circular Vision for Electronics - Time for a Global Reboot", presented in Davos, notes that cloud computing and the Internet of Things (IoT), among other technologies, facilitate the gradual "dematerialization" of the electronics industry.
On the other hand, in order to harness the economic value of e-waste materials and promote circular value chains on a global scale, the report also focuses on the use of new technologies to promote service-based business models, as well as to improve product tracking and manufacturers' or retailers' programmes for product recovery.
The report shows that material efficiency, recycling infrastructures and increasing the quantity and quality of recycled materials in line with the needs of electronics supply chains will be critical for future production activities.
If the electronics sector is promoted on the basis of a relevant policy set and properly managed, millions of decent jobs could be created around the world.
The joint report calls for collaboration with multinationals, SMEs, entrepreneurs, academic institutions, trade unions, society and various associations in order to promote a circular economy in the electronics sector, in which the volume of waste is foreseen, its environmental impact is reduced and decent work is created for millions of people.
