International E-waste Day is a yearly awareness raising celebration initiated by the WEEE Forum and its members and takes place every year on 14th of October. It aims to highlight the growing issue of electronic waste and promote responsible e-waste management.
This year’s edition will run under the slogan “You can recycle anything with a plug, battery or cable!” highlighting the issue of invisible e-waste - the electronic items that often go unrecognized and are not properly recycled within the appropriate waste stream. While e-waste is often associated with discarded gadgets and devices, a significant amount of electronic waste remains hidden in plain sight.
According to UN, 8 kg of e-waste per person will be produced worldwide in 2023. This means 61.3 million tonnes of electronic waste discarded within a year - more than the weight of the Great Wall of China. Only 17.4 per cent of this waste, containing a mixture of harmful substances and precious materials, will be recorded as being properly collected, treated and recycled globally. The remaining 50,6 million tonnes will be either placed in landfill, burned or illegally traded and treated in a sub-standard way or simply hoarded in the households. Even in Europe, which leads the world in e-waste recycling, only 54% of e-waste is officially reported as collected and recycled and the lack of public awareness is preventing countries from developing circular economies for electronic equipment. Source
Come on out and do your part in helping to reduce the amount of E-waste that goes into our landfills! I will be collecting old electronics to either recycle or donate to be refurbished. Items do not need to be in working condition - kindly just label what works and what doesn't work. If it fits in my car, I'll take it. You can find out what items are eligible to be recycled here. If you can't make it to the event but have items to declutter, you can check out this link to find the closest recycling spot to you. Let's do our small part to keep electronics out of landfills, and recycle the valuable elements they hold so less needs to be mined. Plus, you'll finally get rid of that old desktop computer that's been sitting in your basement since 2015.