Developing countries risk creating giant mountains of electronic waste as their consumption of PCs and gadgets increases, the UN has warned.
According to a new report from the United Nation Environment Programme, certain parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America are set to see a rise in sales of electronics over the coming decade.
And unless countries such as India and China step up measures to properly collect and recycle these materials, the resulting waste poses a substantial risk to public health and the environment.
Issued at a meeting of world chemical authorities, the report took data from 11 developing countries to estimate current and future e-waste generation. This includes old desktop and notebook computers, printers, mobile phones, pagers, digital cameras and mp3 players.
The UNEP predicts that in India e-waste from old computers will have shot up by 500 per cent by 2010, compared to 2007 levels. In South Africa and China this increase is predicted to be between 200 and 400 per cent.
According to the report, most e-waste in China is improperly handled, with much of it incinerated by backyard recyclers to recover precious metals like gold.
Advertisement
Related Stories
- AMD launches 2nd-gen A-Series APU May 15th 2012 at 11:27AM
- HannsG launches height adjustable monitor May 9th 2012 at 2:28PM
- EntaTech to distribute Zotac in UK Apr 27th 2012 at 4:34PM
- Zotac unveils 'world's smallest PC' Apr 11th 2012 at 2:30PM
- Sony refreshes 2012 camera line up Mar 2nd 2012 at 5:09AM
- Interview: Acer eyes ultrabright future Feb 13th 2012 at 1:57PM
- Sony boosts compact Cyber-shot range Jan 30th 2012 at 6:10AM
- CES 2012: MSI shows off new line of PCI Express Gen 3 products Jan 11th 2012 at 2:34PM
- Toy giant Hasbro sues Asus Dec 23rd 2011 at 11:24PM
- External and network accessed storage - Part 2 Dec 22nd 2011 at 12:00PM
