Our Global E-Waste Challenge and the Need for Leadership
By Trisa Thompson, Sr. VP and Chief Responsibility Officer at Dell
Originally published on thecirculars.org
Technology today is an integral part of modern life and in recent years, it has been evolving so rapidly and pervasively that there is now a corner cabinet in every household laden with charging cables, old mobile phones or laptops which are either defective or too outdated to use. IT waste is becoming ubiquitous.
Let’s take mobile phones as just one example from the world of technology. If we consider that 63% of the global population currently owns a mobile phone and – on average they are getting a new one every 2-3 years, as many as 4.78 billion mobile phones will become outdated and be replaced by 2020.
The opportunity this challenge represents becomes tangible when we start to consider the valuable metals and minerals tied up within these devices.
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