7 billion neighbors

How do we manage our electronic waste?

Audio 48:30

An old phone and electronic waste.

© RFI/Gabrielle Maréchaux

By: Amélie Beaucour

1 min

Smartphone, computer, tablet, refrigerator, microwave... Our consumption of electronic and digital objects has exploded and with the quantity of electrical and electronic waste, WEEE.

While their mass increases by 3 to 4% each year according to the UN, last year they weighed heavier than the Great Wall of China.

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Worse still, we did not know what had become of 82.6% of the 53 million tonnes of waste electrical and electronic equipment produced worldwide in 2019. Short lifespan, limited repairability, toxic components, the impact of these waste is of increasing concern from a health and environmental point of view.

In many countries, there are still open landfills, sometimes in the middle of towns.

On the other hand, recycling this waste would create many jobs and a significant financial windfall due to the precious metals they contain: their value would be around 62 billion dollars.

How can we reduce our production of electronic waste?

What are the existing laws?

With :

Emmanuelle Frenoux

, teacher-researcher at

and member of

, a service group (GDS) of the CNRS

Samuel Sauvage

, president and co-founder of the

Silvère Wandji

, Technical Operations Manager of the

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