14th October is International E-Waste Day, an awareness day created to highlight the growing problem of e-waste and to promote responsible e-waste management. Now in its sixth year, the anniversary is promoted by the WEEE Forum, an association of collective WEEE management systems that brings together members from over 40 countries.
According to the latest data, at least thirteen electronic products such as mobile phones, PCs, hairdryers are abandoned at home or thrown in landfills. This number drops to nine devices – nine of which are unused but working and four broken – if only the habits of Italians are taken into account.
Real abandoned treasures totalling 8 kg of WEEE per person worldwide and of which this year, numbers in hand made public by the United Nations, only 17.4% will be correctly registered, treated and recycled globally.
With this in mind, International E-Waste Day is becoming increasingly important and this year’s edition has decided to highlight the problem of invisible e-waste. We are talking about toys, electronic cigarettes, power tools, smoke detectors, home appliance solutions, electric bikes and scooters, and even headphones, cables and adapters. All products that contain valuable resources that are crucial for the ecological transition and the production of new electronic devices.
Through the slogan “You can recycle anything with a plug, a battery or a cable!”, individuals are invited to recognise all these devices that, due to their nature or appearance, go unnoticed and consequently are not recycled properly within the appropriate waste stream.
