Africa Produced 2.9 Mt of E-Waste in 2019

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The Global E-Waste Monitor 2020 report published by UN Agency has provided the most comprehensive update of global e-waste statistics. It foresees global e-waste generation to touch 74.7 Mt by 2030. The report says that the world e-waste generation totalled 53.6 Mt in 2019.

According to the report, the African region generated 2.9 Mt in 2019. The per-capita e-waste generation by the region was 2.5 kilograms during the year.

The e-waste management in Africa is dominated by informal sector in most countries. The governments in many of these countries have minimal control over the sector. The e-waste in the region is mostly handled in primitive ways including manual stripping and open burning of components.

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Thirteen countries in the region have national e-waste legislation or policy in place, with specific e-waste legislation on management of e-waste still lacking in most African countries. The report cites lack of adequate public awareness, lack of adequate collection and recycling facilities and dominance of informal sector that leads to environmental pollution. For instance, the Agbobloshie site in Ghana is often referred to as world’s largest electronic waste dump. Also, the countries in the region are dumb yards for world’s used electronics.