Electronic Waste

Solid Waste become more difficulties to treat because not all the compound on the solid waste can be burned like on electronic waste. The amount of electronic products discarded globally has skyrocketed recently, with 20-50 million tonnes generated every year. If such a huge figure is hard to imagine, think of it like this - if the estimated amount of e-waste generated every year would be put into containers on a train it would go once around the world, like have described on National Geography magazine.

Electronic waste or have common say with e-waste, now makes up five percent of all municipal solid waste worldwide, nearly the same amount as all plastic packaging, but it is much more hazardous. Not only developed countries generate e-waste; Asia discards an estimated 12 million tonnes each year. Compound on the electronic product is not just plastic and metal but also contain dangerous chemical that will come out in a gas form when it being burnt and can risk to human.

E-waste is now the fastest growing component of the municipal solid waste stream because people are upgrading their mobile phones, computers, televisions, audio equipment and printers more frequently than ever before. Mobile phones and computers are causing the biggest problem because they are replaced most often.

In Europe e-waste is increasing at three to five percent a year, almost three times faster than the total waste stream. Developing countries are also expected to triple their e-waste production over the next five years.

In developing country like in Africa this e-waste is treat by burning the waste to get the metal and other value component that sometime contain expensive substance like silver and platina or copper that have high price as metal waste.