For decades, the export of electronic waste from the United States and Europe to Asia has raised concerns about the impact on local environments and the low-paid workers who dismantle toxic-laden computers and other gear to recover valuable metals and parts.
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While this portion may seem small in the aggregate, the volume of electronic waste is climbing so rapidly that the percentages are virtually guaranteed to follow barring a significant change in current trends.
This would mean that the annual production of electronic waste would be slashed from the current six million tons to 1.5 million tons, according to EU Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstr m.
Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik said that electronic waste was the fastest growing waste in Europe, and that the revisions to the directive would go some way towards reducing economic burdens.
The ultimate goal is to decrease the amount of electronic waste that ends up in landfills every year.
The second reading agreement includes a clampdown on the illegal shipment of electronic waste to countries where it may be processed in conditions hazardous to workers and the environment.
Currently there is a groundswell of real US electronics recyclers (not exporters that call themselves recyclers) that are demanding a US law (the Responsible Electronics Recycling Act) for toxic electronic waste comparable to what the rest of the world is already doing under the Basel Convention rules.
Reck wrote in her research that even in the European Union, where legislative efforts have tried to boost the collection of electrical and electronic waste, only 25% to 40% is collected and treated in the official system.
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It was pointed out during the debate that of the 53 million tonnes of electronic waste generated in 2009, only 13% was collected and recycled, with the rest being sent to landfill, incinerated or illegally exported.
However as part of the compromise, producers of electronic waste will benefit from simplified reporting requirements.
The debate on 3 February 2011 was to update the 2003 Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive.
As consumers, we're being told to take all our electronic waste to the local civic amenity site where the council should provide us with a special skip.
This hit a key demographic that would have been missed by social media, a demo that is probably not aware it needs to recycle electronic waste responsibly in the first place: seniors.
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Under the agreement reached with member states, 65% of electronic waste must be collected and recycled by 2019.
E-waste is electrical and electronic equipment that is at the end of its useful life.
Participants in that treaty tried to finalize e-waste guidelines, but they were not adopted because some developed countries and the electronics industry would not agree without adding loopholes to allow repairable electronic waste to be exempted, said advocacy group IPEN, a global network of more than 700 public interest non-governmental organizations.
Groups that lobbied to keep the exemption argued that making unlocking illegal is anti-competitive and could result in costlier phones and more electronic waste since some consumers would have to buy a new device to switch carriers.
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