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IPFS News Link • Techno Gadgets

Electronic waste worth £34bn piling up in 'toxic mine', warns UN report

• http://www.independent.co, CAHAL MILMO

A report by the United Nations University (UNU) reveals that the amount of "e-waste" generated globally is increasing by two million tons a year and will reach 50 megatons by 2018 – with Britons among the planet's biggest generators of hi-tech junk.

The study warns that less than 16 per cent of global e-waste is being diverted from landfill into recycling and reuse – representing the loss of an "urban mine" of potentially recyclable materials worth more than £34bn.

Among the resources being lost annually, as millions of items from mobile phones to fridges are inadequately disposed of, are 300 tons of gold (equivalent to more than a 10th of global production in 2013) as well as 1,000 tons of silver worth £400m and 16 megatons of steel with a value of £6.5bn.


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