International E-Waste Day 2024: Theme, Significance, History and Facts

The WEEE forum every year organizes the International E-Waste Day on October 14 that provides an opportunity to the organizations across the world to raise critical awareness about e-waste challenge.

The main focus on this year’s celebration is those small electrical devices that we no longer use but keep in drawers and cupboards or often toss in the general waste bin. Let us learn some further details about International E-Waste Day 2024 from this article here.

International E-Waste Day Date

International E-Waste Day 2023 Overview

International E-Waste Day Significance

Electronic products like mobile phones, electric toothbrushes, toasters, cameras, etc are often discarded incorrectly due to their small size. Such items make up for a significant amount of e-waste that are thrown in waste bins to be land-filled or incinerated. In such case, not only many valuable metals gets lost without getting extracted, many other metals seeps into ground or mix in air and increases pollution of land, water and air.

To focus on eliminating the wastage of small electronic products, the International E-Waste Day 2023 will be celebrated on 14 October 2023 with many e-waste-related awareness-raising activities being organized. The WEEE Forum is also constantly working to make the proper disposal of small e-waste simple and convenient for consumers.

International E-Waste Day Theme

International E-Waste Day 2024 theme:

International E-Waste Day 2023 theme is “You can recycle anything with a plug, battery or cable!”

International E-Waste Day 2022 Theme: “Recycle it all, no matter how small!”

World Food Day

International Day Against Poverty

History of International E-Waste Day Observation

International E-Waste Day is an annual observation celebrated all over the world on 14 October. The day was started by the WEEE Forum, an international organization that works for the management of electrical and electronic waste. The WEEE Forum established International E-Waste Day in 2018 to encourage people to safely reuse and discard electronic products rather than throwing them away. Members and other participants of this forum have actively organized and participated in a variety of activities on International E-Waste Day in the past.

The WEEE Forum is the world’s largest multinational center concerning the management of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). Founded in April 2002, the WEEE forum is a Brussels-based not-for-profit association of 46 WEEE producer responsibility organizations across the world.

International E-Waste Day Celebration

Many activities from conferences and seminars, to social media, TV and radio campaigns to city or school e-waste collections or even artistic performances are organized every year by the WEEE forum and its members to celebrate International E-Waste Day. Providing collection boxes in supermarkets, pick up of small broken appliances upon delivery of new ones and offer PO Boxes to return small e-waste are just some of the things the WEE forum do to encourage the recycle of these items.

Many countries and organization from across the globe take part in celebrations and those willing to join this common effort are invited to register on the initiative’s website.

Quick Facts About Electronic Waste

On this International E-Waste Day, here are some shocking facts related to e-waste that you might not know.

1. Every year about 20 to 50 million metric tons of e-waste are disposed worldwide.
2. Cell phones and other electronic items contain high amounts of precious metals like gold or silver.
3. Metals found in e-waste like lead, cadmium, mercury are extremely hazardous.
4. Many electronic equipment or parts that can be reused or recycled are thrown away as waste.
5. Only 12.5% of all recyclable e-waste is currently recycled.
6. By recycling 1 million cell phones it is possible to recover 35,274 lbs of copper, 772 lbs of silver, 75 lbs of gold and 33 lbs of palladium.
7. By recycling 1 million laptops energy equivalent to the electricity used by more than 3500 homes in a year can be saved
8. According to the EPA, E-waste is the fastest growing municipal waste stream in USA.
9. Europe is the world leader in recycling, collecting, and processing of e-waste.
10. Guiyu, China, is a major dumping ground for e-waste from the US making the city unsafe for residents.

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