Author: Kerry Scharfglass / Source: Hackaday
How large is the cache of discarded electronics in your home? They were once expensive and cherished items, but now they’re a question-mark for responsible disposal. I’m going to dig into this problem — which goes far beyond your collection of dead smartphones — as well as the issues of where this stuff ends up versus where it should end up.
I’m even going to demystify the WEEE mark (that crossed out trashcan icon you’ve been noticing on your gadgets), talk about how much jumbo jets weigh, and touch on circular economies, in the pursuit of better understanding of the waste streams modern gadgets generate.Our lives are encountering an increasing number of “how do I dispose of this [X]” moments, where X is piles of old batteries, LCDs, desktop towers, etc. This leads to relationship-testing piles of garbage potential in a garage or the bottom of a closet. Sometimes that old gear gets sold or donated. Sometimes there’s a handy e-waste campaign that swings through the neighborhood to scoop that pile up, and sometimes it eventually ends up in the trash wrapped in that dirty feeling that we did something wrong. We’ve all been there; it’s easy to discover that responsible disposal of our old electronics can be hard.
Fun fact: the average person who lives in the US generates 20 kg of e-waste annually (or about 44 freedom pounds). That’s not unique, in the UK it’s about 23 kg (that’s 23 in common kilograms), 24 kg for Denmark, and on and on. That’s quite a lot for an individual human, right? What makes up that much waste for one person? For that matter, what sorts of waste is tracked in the bogus sounding e-waste statistics you see bleated out in pleading Facebook posts? Unsurprisingly there are some common definitions. And the Very Serious People people at the World Economic Forum who bring you the definitions have some solutions to consider too.
We spend a lot of time figuring out how to build this stuff. Are we spending enough time planning for what to do with the gear once it falls out of favor? Let’s get to the bottom of this rubbish.
Putting the “E” in Waste
Let’s start at the top. What actually constitutes e-waste, and does it hyphenate? The World Economic Forum defines e-waste (yes, hyphenated) as “anything with a plug, electric cord or battery…that has reached the end of its life, as well as the components that make up these end-of-life products.” That’s pretty easy to apply, right? Did it have electrons traveling through it? Great! Then it will become e-waste at its point of death.
Before we go to far there is an interesting aside. The WEF clarifies that “E-waste is also called waste electrical or electronic equipment, or WEEE for short”. Ever noticed those funny crossed out trash cans on the bottom of your electronics, near the CE, FCC ID, and all that? That’s called a WEEE Mark and it’s there to remind you that the object is e-waste and shouldn’t be thrown away normally. If you’re building electronics one may need to be included. Incidentally writing this post was when I discovered my soldering iron doesn’t have one!
Why am I bothering you with this topic now? E-waste is hardly a new problem. Well the WEF put out a few (surprisingly readable for something billed as an “economic forum”) white papers about e-waste at the end of January and they have some pretty terrifying statistics. Like that one about every person in the US generating about 20 kg of e-waste annually.
Note that the distribution of waste/person is highly uneven, and while 20 kg is near the top the low end is very nearly 0kg/person/year. If we ask Wolfram Alpha to humanize that 20kg number for us we get a not-useful comparison to the weight of a gold bar (come on Wolfram, we’re Hackaday writers not bankers). Not useful. But the white paper has some totally bonkers comparisons that help.
E-Waste Volume in Terms of Airplanes
Based on 2016 figures, humanity generates about 44.7 millions tonnes of e-waste worldwide each year. It’s a little dated, but we can put it in terms of big airplanes. A 747-100 has a maximum takeoff weight of about 333,000kg. An A380’s zero fuel weight is about 361,000 kgs (ironically that comparison is a little dated too). Divide that out and we generate about 125,000 jumbo jets of e-waste. Per year.
I’d ask if you’ve ever seen an airport that crowded except one can’t possibly exist anywhere on the planet because it would literally cover Manhattan. If jets magically materialized at the end of a Heathrow runway and the airport operated continuously at full capacity (drone free), it would take 6 months of 24 hour service for them to take off. Now are you getting it? Does it seem big? I’d compare it to Eiffel towers but it’s frankly a less impressive metric.
Where is Stuff Going?
Time for another exciting statistic! E-waste is only 2% of solid waste streams (trash, basically) but represents 70% of the total hazardous waste that makes it to a landfill. Of course not all, but some electronics are a bonanza of heavy metals and other things you don’t want leaching into your water table. But no one is going to find janitorial rolling dusty racks out of a data center and into a dumpster (I hope. You’re not doing that right?). There are recycling programs and private businesses established worldwide to consume this waste stream for either ecological reasons or financial ones.
It turns out…
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