ILO Demands Immediate Action on Better Management of E-Waste

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The International Labour Organization (ILO) has called for urgent action to ensure better management of electronic waste around the world, so as to turn it into a valuable source of new job opportunities. The meeting held recently at ILO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland urged governments to increase investments in e-waste management infrastructure to make it capable to handle the rising volumes of e-waste.

According to ILO, e-waste has emerged as one of the fastest growing waste streams in the world. Owing to surprisingly lower recycling and reuse rates, the e-waste volumes are expected to grow at an alarming rate. As a matter of urgency, the governments of all countries should do the needful to manage it in a better way. It highlighted the need for right infrastructure, regulations, policies and processes to address the issue.

The meeting took note on the safety risks of people working with e-waste. E-waste comprises of highly toxic and hazardous substances which could cause serious danger to both workers and the environment. Much of the e-waste handling is carried out by unorganized sector, where people work in particularly vulnerable situations. As per estimates, only one-fifth of the world’s e-waste is properly recycled, ILO said.

The e-waste sector offers immense job opportunities. The formalization of the sector through effective public-private partnership could boost e-waste recycling and create large number of job opportunities.