The Unequal Generation of Electronic Waste

In a world of rapidly evolving technology, electronic items quickly become obsolete. Even though some of these items are recycled, many end up as electronic waste. “E-waste”, as it's also known, includes not only items such as mobile phones, wireless headphones and tablets, but also refrigerators, stoves, washing machines and hairdryers.

According to findings by the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, published in the Global E-Waste Monitor 2024 report, e-waste is a growing (two-pronged) problem: As ever more products are made and sold, the global e-waste collection and recycling rate is simultaneously unable to keep up. Where the world generated some 34 billion kg of e-waste in 2010, this had increased to some 62 billion kg by 2022 (the latest available data), of which only 22.3 percent was reported as having been properly collected and recycled.

The following chart highlights how e-waste generation is far from equal. For example, where Norwegians generated around 27 kg per capita in 2022, Indians and Nigerians generated just 2 kg and 2 kg, respectively.

Of course, the size of a country also has an impact. For example, China produced some 12,000 million tons of e-waste, while the United States was also a major producer at 7,200 million tons.

In Asia, the countries with the highest overall e-waste generation were China (12,000 billion kg), India (4,100 b kg), Japan (2,600 b kg), Indonesia (1,900 b kg) and Turkey (1,100 b kg). However, in terms of per capita, then Hong Kong came first (22 kg) followed by Japan (21 kg), Singapore (20 kg), Brunei Darussalam (20 kg) and Taiwan (19 kg).