Possible New Legislation on the Export of E-waste
by Evan Zhao
Electronic waste, or e-waste, is a term used to describe electronics
at the end of their useful lives. E-waste can be generated from a variety of
sources, ranging from cell phones and computers to media tablets and portable
music devices. As global demand for these electronic technologies increases, the
management of e-waste becomes increasingly important.
On one hand, the inefficient recycling of e-waste has
contributed to the rising price of valuable metals such as gold. Currently, the
worldwide manufacturing of electric and electronic devices requires an annual
$21 billion in gold and silver, but less than 15% of these metals are recovered
from e-waste. This inefficiency is partly due to the export of e-waste from
developed to developing countries for processing. Although exporting e-waste
overseas reduces processing costs, these reductions occur at the expense
of efficiency. The crude dismantling processes of many developing nations
result in 50% of the gold in e-waste being lost and a recovery rate of only 25% for the remaining gold, whereas modern facilities in developed countries are
able to recover 95% of the 75% of gold not lost in the dismantling process.
