UN digs into 'e-scrap' mountain

A United Nations-led initiative aims to shrink the world's massive 'e-scrap' mountain by improving recycling processes and extending the lifespan of high-tech hardware.

Manufacturers including Cisco, Dell, Ericsson, HP and Microsoft are working with the UN and recycling companies on the Solving the E-Waste Problem (StEP) initiative.

Valuable components in computers, TVs, phones, MP3 players, sat-nav systems - and pretty much anything else with a plug - are being trashed in ever increasing volumes worldwide.

The European Environmental Agency calculates the volume of e-scrap is now rising three times faster than any other form of municipal waste, and the annual global volume of e-scrap is soon expected to reach roughly 40 million metric tons - enough to fill a line of dustcarts stretching halfway around the world.

And, even worse, items sent to developing countries for reuse often ultimately remain unused or are shipped by unscrupulous people for illegal disposal. Much 'e-scrap' in these developing countries is incinerated, adding toxic chemicals to the environment.

Ruediger Kuehr of the United Nations University, which will host the StEP Secretariat in Bonn, Germany, said in a statement: "There's more than gold in those mountains of high-tech scrap."

As well as the gold, palladium and silver found in high-tech rubbish, other metals involved include indium (used in flatscreen monitors and mobile phones), bismuth (used in lead-free solders) and ruthenium (used in resistors and hard disk drives).

Recycling these metals is also important in keeping prices down, said Kuehr: "This recycling of trace elements requires high-tech processes but it is vital to do it. For manufacturers, improving the e-scrap recycling process is essential to ongoing production and repair operations."

StEP aims to create a guide to dismantling e-scrap. A large-scale project to help countries safely dismantle and dispose of its domestic e-scrap is also in the works.

Other plans involve shaping government policies worldwide and addressing issues involved with the product life expectancy, reuse and recycling. The StEP logo will signal to consumers that a company's products conform to agreed international standards and guidelines.

The manufacture of new high-tech goods is very resource hungry - making a desktop PC and a 17-inch CRT monitor uses at least 240kg of fossil fuels, 22kg of chemicals and 1,500kg of water - in total the resources equal to the weight of a rhino.