Chemists in call for more e-waste to be recycled

THE recycling of e-waste must urgently be increased because mining the Earth for metals to make new gadgets is unsustainable, scientists have said.

A new campaign run by the Royal Society of Chemistry is drawing attention to the unsustainability of continuing to mine for materials used in consumer technology.

One study estimated that the world’s mountain of discarded electronics, in 2021 alone, weighed 57 million tonnes, more than the Great Wall of China.

The society said there now needs to be a global effort to mine that waste, rather than mining the Earth.

It pointed out that geopolitical unrest, including the war in Ukraine, has caused huge spikes in the price of materials like nickel, a key element in electric vehicle batteries.

This volatility in the market for elements is now causing “chaos in supply chains”.

Combined with the surge in demand, the price of lithium, another important component in battery technology, has increased by almost 500 per cent between 2021 and 2022.

The society warned that some key elements are now simply running out.

Professor Tom Welton, president of the Royal Society of Chemistry, said: “Our tech consumption habits remain highly unsustainable and have left us at risk of exhausting the raw elements we need.

“It is essential that governments and businesses urgently do more to develop a circular economy which can tackle the world’s growing e-waste crisis and alleviate the strain on supply chains.”

The society hopes to encourage people to take old and unwanted devices to recycling centres, rather than stuff them into drawers and forget about them.