Phone/Whatsapp: +86 19903886476
Email:zyunfei87@gmail.com
India Discarded Gold Worth $63.47 Billion as Part of E-Waste
In 2016, India discarded gold worth INR 6,347 crore and silver worth INR 300 crore as part of e-waste. By weight, the country is believed to have disposed around 22 tonnes of gold and 71 tonnes of silver.
The recent report published by an UN agency states that India has discarded electronic waste containing gold and other precious metals worth several billions. The report titled ‘The Global E-Waste Monitor 2017’ by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) also warns that the discarded e-waste volumes are seen rising steadily every year. The UN Agency notes that e-waste is the world’s fastest growing waste stream.
In 2016, India discarded gold worth INR 6,347 crore and silver worth INR 300 crore as part of e-waste. By weight, the country is believed to have disposed around 22 tonnes of gold and 71 tonnes of silver. Inclusive of other metals, precious metals including silver and palladium, the country discarded INR 18,677 crore as electronic waste. The report indicates that India disposed of 728 kilotonnes of iron, 97 kilotonnes of copper and 111 kilotonnes of Aluminum. The country also wasted INR 5,152 crore of plastics. The amount of recoverable materials lost due to dumping of e-waste across the world increased significantly in 2016. India was ranked fourth after China, the US and Japan in terms of total amount of e-waste generated during the entire year.
The discarded e-waste also contains potentially hazardous metals including lead, cadmium and mercury, which could lead to environmental pollution.
The Global E-Waste Monitor 2017 finds that the amount of electronic waste is growing and that’s both in terms of absolute value as well as per inhabitant. The world produced 44.7 million metric tons of electronic waste in 2016. Australia and New Zealand were the biggest e-waste culprits in terms of per-capita e-waste generation. The per-capita e-waste generation by the Oceania region countries stood at 38 pounds, whereas only 6% was formally collected and recycled. It also states that the global e-waste rose alarmingly by 8% from 2014 to 2016.
