New EWaste Report

Report: Global e-scrap tide to turn in 2015

According to a report from Pike Research, the current "e-waste crisis" will continue to worsen until 2015, with volume peaking at 80.4 million tons, eventually declining in the following years.

The study, Electronics Recycling and E-Waste Issues, further finds that over 66 million tons of e-scrap at the "decision point" — ready to go to either re-use/recycle or landfill — in 2013. The projected recycling rate of that tonnage could top 50 percent, depending on government intervention and consumer incentives.

"Assuming a recovery rate of valuable materials at 45 percent of the gross quantity of e-waste available, approximately 14 million tons of raw materials could be available for new product manufacturing during 2013," the study authors write in the executive summary.

At the current industry average rate of reuse (devices to be reused for their original purpose constitutes less than .2% of all materials processed), this study indicates that only 66,000 tons will actually be reused - the rest will be destroyed via the recycling process.

If enough green-centric reuse programs are operating by 2013 that could process just one-quarter of all this material at EWA rates - more than 11,550,000 tons would be recovered - the conservative equivalent of more than 480 thousand reusable personal computer systems.