UN E-Waste Report Urges More Attention to Design, Production Practices

Forty-nine percent of e-waste initiatives are carried out through U.N.-public sector collaboration, with U.N.-private sector collaboration at only 36 percent, the world body reported Tuesday. The U.N. and related entities have been involved in various stages of e-waste management, including “recycling and environmentally sound management,” cross-boundary transfer and design and standardization of information, said the report, but less attention is being paid to reduction of e-waste and to poor practices during design and production of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE). The report cited a need to engage more with the private sector to address businesses' responsibility in EEE production. The U.N. said its activities on e-waste are centered mostly in Africa and Asia, less in Europe and “significantly less” in North America, Australia and New Zealand. More attention in Africa and Asia can be attributed to “the more curative nature of many current approaches to e-waste management in these regions such as open burning and acid baths” for separating materials, it said. Africa and Asia have long been a hub for near-end-of-life and end-of life “legally and illegally imported EEE,” it said. The report suggests ways to address the global e-waste problem including focusing on repair and refurbishment activities, supporting new business models and reducing or eliminating taxes on reuse and repair operations. It pushed supporting member states and "supranational entities" such as the EU in tracking and containing precious and rare-earth metals used in EEE and efforts to identify the link between e-waste and natural resource exploitation through raw material mining and other means. It said the U.N. should play a role in informing member states about relevant e-waste issues by expanding national data collection and information-sharing on issues such as national e-waste flows and characteristics, while sharing good and bad e-waste management practices.