The amount of e-waste is ever-increasing. This a chance for recyclers to profit from this highly valuable waste stream. The 14th of October is International E-Waste Day (#ewasteday). This year it focuses on small items of e-waste, under the slogan ‘Recycle it all, no matter how small!’.

The UN estimated that in 2019 over 22 million tonnes of small e-waste were produced worldwide. Making it 40% of the about 57 million tonnes of e-waste arising globally. If the quantity of these small items keeps on increasing at the same rate as total e-waste (around 3% per year) by 2030 there will be 29 million tonnes of small e-waste per year. Also, only 17,4 % of that whole amount of e-waste was recycled.

Due to their size, items such as electric toothbrushes, and mobile phones, but also toasters and blow dryers are often and up in regular waste bins and are subsequently landfilled or incinerated. This of course means that important raw materials are lost. It is estimated that in Europe, up to 1.4 kg of e-waste per inhabitant ends up in the general waste bin every year.

Only recently the Parties to the Basel Convention agreed to the “Swiss-Ghana Amendments”, establishing not only new definitions of hazardous and non-hazardous electronic waste but also banning those two categories from the trade or at a minimum requiring notification by the exporting country and consent by the importing country prior to export.

For recyclers, e-waste has a big economic potential. It is estimated that 82.6 % of e-waste that is not recycled globally has a worth of $47 billion. Specific high-value parts like whole PCBs can be sold if they are sorted out before shredding. Ferrous and non-ferrous metals are of high value and can all be sold as they are for refining.

Apart from the value of the materials, many types of e-waste contain hazardous substances such as lead, mercury, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), etc. These must be taken care of separately to avoid harming both humans and the environment.

Learn how we are helping track and trace e-waste enabling the recovery of valuable resources » GO.

About Klean Industries

Klean Industries (“Klean”) provides best-in-class technologies and solutions in the waste-to-value industry. Our international team of award-winning experts has decades of experience in the design, engineering, and manufacturing of the highest-quality equipment to convert waste streams into valuable energy and resources. Our unique products and services are a result of combined know-how in the design of recycling, resource recovery, waste management, and power generation projects. Our global project management expertise safeguards timelines and budgets enabling projects to be delivered in less time and at lower costs.

Klean uses proprietary technologies to rapidly develop projects that produce the highest quality fuels, recovered Carbon Blacks (“rCB”), and green hydrogen from various kinds of feedstocks. Our knowledge and skillfulness provide a specialization in building projects that use advanced thermal technologies such as pyrolysis, gasification, and carbonization, which convert end of life tires, waste plastics, and municipal solid waste into domestic energy, sustainable commodities, and new cleantech jobs. We create a symbiosis between waste, resources, and energy. Klean Industries is the link between the low carbon, circular economy, and the goal of zero waste to landfill.

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