(Image source from: theatlantic.com)

Every year nearly 50 tonnes of electronic and electrical waste (e-waste) is discarded, which in terms of material value is worth 62.5 billion dollars, a report by the United Nations said Thursday.

Unexpectedly, less than 20 percent of e-waste is recycled formally. Informally, millions of people globally, more than 6000,000 alone, work to dispose of e-waste, much of it carried out in working conditions harmful to both environment and the health.

Supported by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and World Economic Forum, seven UN entities have come together to call for an overhaul of the current electronics system with an aim of supporting international endeavors to address e-waste challenge.

The report calls for systematic collaboration with major brands, small and medium-sized academia, enterprises, civil society, trade unions, and associations in a deliberative procedure to reorient the system and cut down the waste of resources every year with a value greater than the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of most countries.

The report, "A new circular vision for electronics - Time for a global reboot", launched in Davos said technologies such as cloud computing and the internet of things support bit-by-bit "dematerialization" of the electronics industry.

To gaining control of the global value of materials in e-waste and create global circular value chains, the report as well points to the use of new technology to create service business models, better product tracking and manufacturer or retailer take-back programs.

The report notes that material efficiency, recycling infrastructure and scaling up the volume and quality of recycled materials to meet the needs of electronics supply chains will all be essential for future production.

And if the electronics sector is supported by the right policy mix and managed in the right way, it could lead to the creation of millions of respectable jobs globally.

The report supports the work of the e-waste coalition, which includes the International Labour Organization, the International Telecommunication Union, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, the UN Environment, United Nations University and Secretariats of the Basel and Stockholm conventions.

According to the International Labour Organization, in Nigeria, up to 100,000 people work in the informal e-waste sector.

This investment will help to create a system which formalizes these workers, giving them safe and decent employment while capturing the latent value in Nigeria's 500,000 tonnes of e-waste.

-Sowmya Sangam