Electronic waste is the fastest-growing waste stream in the world. Estimates put the annual total in the tens of millions of tonnes, with well under a quarter documented as properly recycled.
Why the rate is low
Devices are hard to take apart. Glued assemblies, mixed materials, and components designed for manufacturing rather than disassembly make recovery labour-intensive.
The valuable content is small in quantity and dispersed – a few grams of gold, some copper, rare earths in tiny amounts. Recovering it costs more than the material is worth unless done at scale with the right equipment.
Where it actually goes
Some into formal recycling, which recovers metals and disposes of the rest safely.
Some exported, legally and otherwise, to countries where it is dismantled informally – burned to recover copper, acid-washed for gold – with serious health consequences for the people doing it.
And a great deal into general waste, where it goes to landfill with its heavy metals.
What is changing
Rules making manufacturers responsible for end-of-life disposal, which changes the incentive at the design stage. Repair requirements that extend device life. And better formal recycling capacity in the countries generating the waste.
What you can do
Keep devices longer, which is the largest single factor. A phone used for five years instead of two has a third of the annual footprint.
Sell or give away anything still working. The second-hand market is the best form of recycling available.
And take genuinely dead electronics to a proper collection point rather than the bin. Most areas have one and most people do not use it.