Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) is the fastest growing waste stream in the world.
According to the UN E-waste Monitor of 2024, in 2022 62 million tons of this waste were generated globally. The useful life of electronic devices is very short, as they are designed under the Global North model of rapid consumption and constant renewal. This system increasingly incentivizes planned obsolescence to increase sales and profits.
This discard trend generates large amounts of electronic waste, which continues to increase with the popularization of consumer technology. In Spain, for example, about 19 kg of electronic waste per person is produced per year, nonetheless, only about 40% is duly recycled.
Once the devices are discarded, some of them are sent to countries in the Global South. On the one hand, this export encourages a sector of repairers who do a great job of putting reconditioned appliances back on the market. Despite this, some exports mix repairable appliances with non-repairable ones, that is junk.
When in the destination country the infrastructure for the management of this waste is insufficient, an informal sector appears which handles waste in dangerous conditions without the technology and protection necessary to minimize the harmful effects of toxic substances present in many electronic components, such as lead. These materials, when not treated properly, contaminate soil and water, affecting biodiversity and causing health problems in local populations.
→ This reinforces the inequalities between the Global North and the Global South, where countries with the highest consumption of technology move their waste to more vulnerable regions, avoiding the environmental and social cost of managing them locally. At the same time, the transport of waste between countries also has a high carbon footprint, which contributes even more to the global climate crisis.
If you want to contribute to reducing the generation of this type of waste, read our interactive guide.
