UN agencies to help track global e-waste

Geneva, July 13 (IANS) UN agencies are starting to work together to track and help deal with a soaring amount of electronic wastes worldwide, the International Telecommunication Union (ITS) said.

As technologies change at great speed, and as access to and use of electrical and electronic equipment increases, the products' life cycles have become shorter and many designs do not support repair or reuse. As a result, the amount of electronic waste, or e-waste, is growing rapidly, Xinhua news agency quoted the ITS as saying.

Most e-waste has not been properly documented or treated through appropriate recycling chains and methods. According to the UN Environment Programme, up to 50 million tonnes of electronic wastes are expected to be dumped in 2017, which sees a 20 per cent increase from 2015.

In light of the fact that responsible disposal of those devices remains a challenge for many countries, ITS, UN University, and the International Solid Waste Association have formed the Global e-Waste Statistics Partnership to improve and collect worldwide e-waste statistics.

"ITS has a track record of providing the world with the most reliable and trustworthy ICC-related data," said ITS Secretary-General Hour Zhao.

"We are pleased to be part of this partnership and to lend our expertise and our long standing experience in data collection to assist countries to track and measure their e-waste, so that responsible e-waste management can be implemented."

Better e-waste data also helps minimize its generation, prevent illegal dumping, promote recycling, and create jobs in reuse, refurbishment and recycling sectors, which will contribute to the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, in particular, to ensuring "sustainable consumption and production patterns".

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