One of the most significant pollution problems globally is electronic waste (e-waste). A record 65.3 million tonnes of e-waste was produced globally in 2025, an increase of 92% over the e-waste produced in 2010. This represents ~3.1% of the estimated 2 billion tonnes of total waste produced annually. E-waste is projected to grow by an additional 26% (to 82 million tonnes per year) by 2030.
E-waste consists of discarded electronic devices, ranging from cell phones to tablets and computers, to home entertainment systems and appliances. Almost every modern convenience most likely will contain electronic components which will eventually end life as e-waste.
Unlike other material which is collected for recycling, e-waste typically is not composed as a single material. Take cell phones for example, in 2022 it was estimated that approximately 5.3 billion cell phones were discarded. In the US, approximately 416,000 cell phones are discarded every day.
Nearly 100% of cell phone components can be recycled. Their recycling would produce precious metals, plastics, and glass. These potential recycled materials exist within the lithium-ion batteries, circuit boards, casing, and cameras. Typical e-waste is a mixture consisting of approximately 40% – 60% metals, 20% – 30% plastics, and up to 40% other materials.
Current technology requires meticulous and expensive separation of the e-waste into its individual components for efficient recycling.
Depending on the source quoted, globally only 17% to 22% of e-waste is properly collected and recycled. The remaining 78+% typically ends up in landfills, either in its native country or it is exported to other countries.
In the EU, despite having some of the strictest regulations on e-waste disposal, less than 50% of electronic waste is collected and recycled properly. Once in the landfill, e-waste tends to release heavy metals, such as mercury, lead, cadmium, chromium, and arsenic into the soil and ground water. It is estimated that 70% of heavy metals in US landfills is from e-waste.
The metal content of e-waste has value. In 2022, these metals had a value of $91 billion. Copper, iron, and gold account for a large portion of potentially recoverable metal in e-waste. Aluminum, platinum, and rare earth elements are also valuable components of e-waste. Recovery of metals from e-waste have numerous benefits: reduced landfill volume, reduced demand for mining expansion, shorter transportation distances than that of the native ore, and reduced energy consumption.
Developing nations, particularly in West Africa and Southeast Asia, serve as primary disposal sites for discarded electronics from the US and Europe. Shipping e-waste to developing nations is generally less expensive than domestic recycling because it avoids high environmental compliance and labor costs.
Environmental issues in the countries receiving the e-waste is aggravated due to unregulated open-air burning and the use of acid baths to recover valuable materials. Both of these practices have been linked to irreversible health effects, including cancers, miscarriages, neurological damage, and diminished IQ’s.
Landfilling E-waste
The simplest solution to e-waste would seem to be disposal in a landfill. Tipping fees (the cost of dumping one tonne of waste in a landfill) average ~€70 in the EU and ~$60 in the US. In the EU, e-waste is growing about 2% annually, a growth rate three times faster than other household waste.
In 2022, on average, approximately 12 kg per year of e-waste per person in the EU was collected. While sales of electronic devices have grown by 78% between 2015 and 2023, collection rates of electronic devices have not kept pace. In 2023, while 14.4 million tonnes of electronic devices were sold in the EU, only 5.2 million tonnes of e-waste were collected.
Approximately 4.8 million tonnes of e-waste are improperly disposed of annually in the EU. In the US, ~2% of a typical landfill is e-waste. While this seems like a minor amount, it is estimated that this 2% accounts for ~70% of the toxic material in the landfill. At some point, the toxic metals will begin to leach out of the e-waste and enter the soil, surface water, and eventually the ground water.
Landfills can be designed to contain the toxic metals that will leach out of the e-waste, but at a significant cost. Landfills designed to contain toxic metals need a robust, multi-layered containment systems with impervious liners, active leachate collection, monitoring, neutralization system, and specialized capping.
All this protection for the environment comes at significant cost. EU law requires operators to finance after-care for at least 30 years after a landfill closes. Capping a landfill site to prevent environmental contamination can cost between $26,000 and $51,000 per acre.
In the US, constructing a modern, high-standard “no leaching” landfill often costs around $500,000 per acre to set up, with liner costs ranging from $246,000 to over $1 million per acre. Annual operating costs are roughly $600,000. Once the landfill is closed, long-term monitoring is required, which adds significantly to the long-term expenses.
If landfill is the choice for disposal of e-waste, then the cost of a properly designed “no leaching” landfill must be realized not only for construction and operation, but for monitoring and treatment of hazardous effluent for many decades after it is closed.
Recycling E-Waste
Traditional recycling methods involving the collection, separation, and cleaning of material are well established for materials like paper, plastic, glass, and metal. E-waste is different in that it contains hazardous materials and typically contains a mixture of materials, making their recycling process more complex. E-waste recycling involves dismantling the electronics, safely extracting hazardous materials, and recovering the valuable metals such as gold, iron, nickel, aluminum, palladium, lithium, and copper.
In 2022, the raw materials in 62 million tonnes of e-waste were valued at $91 billion. In the same year, only $19 billion of e-waste components was recovered through environmentally sound recycling. This results in a vast potential resource being discarded. Large amounts of precious and base metals can make it economically viable to recycle e-waste.
This assumes that the cost of the material recovered from e-waste is more than the cost to recover the material. It is estimated that there are 140 grams of gold in one tonne of cell phone e-waste. Assuming a gold price of $150 per gram, each tonne of cell phone e-waste can produce gold worth $21,000.
As stated above, recycling of e-waste in the EU is less than 50%, and less than 20% in the US. Why the low rate for recycling? Here are a few key reasons why e-waste recycling is not being utilized more: e-waste recycling is currently very costly, consumer products are not designed nor assembled with recycling in mind; recycling of e-waste is a very complicated process from a technical standpoint, requiring multiple steps of shredding, separation of plastic and metals, and complex steps for metal recovery; risk of contamination, environmental, and health risks for workers; a lack of standardized regulations and infrastructure, especially in the US.
In an effort to resolve these issues, Governments are passing increasingly stringent regulations aimed at both consumers and manufacturers. In the EU, the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive mandates that producers are responsible for the disposal of their products.
This regulatory framework compels manufacturers to adopt sustainable practices which should increase recycling. Manufacturers that fail to comply may face substantial fines. It is hopeful that more countries will adopt similar regulations aimed at the recycling of e-waste.
Even in the absence of recycling regulations, manufacturers are adopting policies for the recycling e-waste responsibly. This is partially driven by the expectation of future regulations, but also from a growth in consumer pressure for environmental recycling practices. Corporations are now investing in recycling programs and partnerships with certified e-waste recyclers to ensure compliance. This should result in the demand for electronic waste recycling services to increase.
Advances under development in the separation of materials from e-waste will help grow recycling of e-waste. Innovations in recycling technologies, such as automated sorting systems (AI), advanced shredding techniques, and novel chemical and biological extraction processes are under development which will enhance the efficiency of e-waste processing.
These technologies could improve recovery of valuable materials and reduce the environmental impact associated with traditional recycling methods. One of the most important areas is consumer awareness and education. As these awareness programs and advanced technologies move closer to commercialization, the recycling of e-waste should increase globally.
Conclusion
There is a growing awareness among consumers regarding the importance of recycling discarded electronics.
Educational campaigns and initiatives are helping to inform the public about the environmental impacts of e-waste. This heightened awareness may drive increased participation in recycling programs, ultimately benefiting the recycling of e-waste.
New methods for material recovery and recycling processes are emerging, which may enhance the efficiency of e-waste processing. These innovations could lead to higher recovery rates of valuable materials, thereby making recycling e-waste more economically viable. With emerging technologies, it will be possible to make a profit recycling e-waste.
Charles E. Taylor
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By: ONE Team
ONE is a nonprofit magazine founded in 2014, dedicated to providing unbiased and independent commentary and reporting on energy and environment issues. ONE policy pursues the following principles: accuracy, integrity and transparency.
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