From the Converted to Everybody Else: Consumers in the Circular Economy

Innovation and lower costs have created an insatiable human appetite for electronic devices.
The digital revolution, in recent years, has gone into overdrive, which has led consumers to purchase additional – and mostly new – electronic devices. The outdated or extra ones offer no value, and are often jettisoned. This has led to an accumulation of electronic waste (e-waste). While a digitally connected world has unprecedented virtues and warrants the ubiquitous presence of electronic devices, it is, unfortunately, helping create an escalating torrent of waste.
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The numbers back the claim: the world produces as much as 50 million tonnes of e-waste a year – valued at over $62.5bn – outweighing all commercial aircraft ever constructed, a UN report in 2019 revealed.