Big Tech Backs Plan to Tackle E-Waste Crisis

Graphic showing recycling rates by world region for electronic waste - AFP
Graphic showing recycling rates by world region for electronic waste - AFP
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Big Tech Backs Plan to Tackle E-Waste Crisis

Graphic showing recycling rates by world region for electronic waste - AFP
Graphic showing recycling rates by world region for electronic waste - AFP

Major technology firms including Dell, Microsoft and Google have joined a new initiative aimed at creating a circular economy for electronics by 2030, amid mounting alarm over the world's ballooning e-waste problem.

The project comes as humanity's insatiable appetite for smartphones, household appliances and electronic car parts combined with the short lifespans of many tech products has made e-waste the planet's fastest growing refuse.

According to the United Nations, more than 50 million tonnes of electronic waste was discarded in 2019, with the vast majority ending up in landfill and on scrap heaps.

Those products contain gold, silver, copper and platinum as well as highly-prized rare earth metals.

With only 17 percent of products recycled, the UN estimates that materials worth more than $55 billion (50 billion euros) are being wasted every year.

Meanwhile, more must be mined to make new products, sparking environmental and human rights fears, AFP reported.

The new initiative, led by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and the World Economic Forum, has outlined a vision for how industry might break this habit.

But this is only a first step and does not include financial commitments or firm targets, the groups caution.

Companies taking part include Cisco, Dell Technologies, Glencore, Google, KPMG International, Microsoft, Sims Limited and Vodafone.

"We can't continue to assume that we can produce as many products as we want without thinking about what happens at end of life," said Brendan Edgerton of the WBCSD, adding that electronics involved include "everything with a plug or a battery".

Ideas range from designing products so that precious metals are easier to extract, to creating an "eco label" system, but Edgerton said the initial step was more modest -- coming up with a shared idea of what a circular economy might look like.

"What we're trying to do is make sure that when one company is going in one direction, another company isn't going in a different direction with the same goal," he told AFP.

Dell has said half of the materials it uses will be "recycled or renewable" by 2030.

"But as an industry, we need to move faster," said Michael Murphy, Dell Vice President of Product Development Engineering.

In a separate announcement in October, Apple said its newest iPhones would be produced using completely recycled rare earth materials.

Just over half of all emissions in the IT sector come from the use of equipment and data centers, with the rest from production, said James Pennington of the WEF.

"One of the key ways to bring down those emissions and meet net-zero targets is through a more circular economy -- reusing, recycling and extending the life of products," he said.

A briefing from the European Environment Agency last year said research into smartphones, televisions, washing machines and vacuum cleaners showed that their lifespan was more than two years shorter than either their designed or desired lifetimes.

There are nearly 700 million old "hibernating" mobile phones in Europe alone, amounting to some 14,920 tonnes of gold, silver, copper, palladium, cobalt and lithium with a value of over a billion euros.

Pennington said that while stronger waste regulations are crucial, more specialized recycling facilities are also needed to process the sheer volume of e-waste.

There are also concerns about creating incentives without ensuring that products are actually recycled, after illegal dumping of household plastics, particularly in Southeast Asia, has caused severe pollution.

The idea of an eco label, already being considered in Europe, could help people choose green electricals, but Edgerton said recycling principles would need to become the "new normal" to make a difference.

"For this to truly be at the scale that it needs to be, it needs to be available to everyday consumers, this can't be an upper class option to tick a green box, or we'll find ourselves in a situation that's not too different from today," he said.



Blogs to Bluesky: Social Media Shifts Responses after 2004 Tsunami

Teuku Hafid Hududillah, 28, an Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) officer, shows the seismograph system that recorded the 9.1 magnitude quake on the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, at the monitoring station in Aceh Besar, Aceh, Indonesia, December 23, 2024. (Reuters)
Teuku Hafid Hududillah, 28, an Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) officer, shows the seismograph system that recorded the 9.1 magnitude quake on the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, at the monitoring station in Aceh Besar, Aceh, Indonesia, December 23, 2024. (Reuters)
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Blogs to Bluesky: Social Media Shifts Responses after 2004 Tsunami

Teuku Hafid Hududillah, 28, an Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) officer, shows the seismograph system that recorded the 9.1 magnitude quake on the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, at the monitoring station in Aceh Besar, Aceh, Indonesia, December 23, 2024. (Reuters)
Teuku Hafid Hududillah, 28, an Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) officer, shows the seismograph system that recorded the 9.1 magnitude quake on the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, at the monitoring station in Aceh Besar, Aceh, Indonesia, December 23, 2024. (Reuters)

The world's deadliest tsunami hit nations around the Indian Ocean two decades ago before social media platforms flourished, but they have since transformed how we understand and respond to disasters -- from finding the missing to swift crowdfunding.

When a 9.1-magnitude quake caused a tsunami that smashed into coastal areas on December 26, 2004, killing more than 220,000 people, broadcasters, newspapers and wire agencies were the main media bringing news of the calamity to the world.

Yet in some places, the sheer scale took days to emerge.

Survivor Mark Oberle was holidaying in Thailand's Phuket when the giant waves hit Patong beach, and penned a blog post to fend off questions from family, friends and strangers in the days after the disaster.

"The first hints of the extent were from European visitors who got text messages from friends back home," said Oberle, adding people initially thought the quake was local and small, when its epicenter was actually near western Indonesia, hundreds of miles away.

"I wrote the blog because there were so many friends and family who wanted to know more. Plus, I was getting many queries from strangers. People were desperate for good news tales," said the US-based physician, who helped the injured.

The blog included images of cars ploughed into hotels, water-filled roads and locals fleeing on scooters because rumors produced "a stampede from the beach to higher ground".

Bloggers were named "People of the Year" by ABC News in 2004 because of the intimacy of first-hand accounts like those published in the days following the tsunami.

But today billions can follow major events in real-time on social media, enabling citizen journalism and assistance from afar, despite the real risk of rumor and misinformation.

During Spain's worst floods for decades in October, people voluntarily managed social media accounts to assist relatives trying to locate their missing loved ones.

After Türkiye's devastating earthquake last year, a 20-year-old student was rescued thanks to a post of his location while buried under the rubble.

- 'Fast picture' -

Two decades ago, the online social media landscape was vastly different.

Facebook was launched early in 2004 but was not yet widely used when the tsunami hit.

One of YouTube's founders reportedly said an inspiration for the platform's founding in early 2005 was an inability to find footage of the tsunami in its aftermath.

Some tsunami images were posted on photo site Flickr. But X, Instagram and Bluesky now allow for instant sharing.

Experts are clear that more information saves lives -- hours lapsed between the tremor's epicenter near Indonesia and the giant waves that crashed into Sri Lanka, India and Thailand's coastal areas.

Daniel Aldrich, a professor at Northeastern University, conducted interviews in India's Tamil Nadu where many said they had no idea what a tsunami was and had no warnings in 2004.

"In India alone nearly 6,000 people were taken by surprise and drowned in that event," he said.

Mobile apps and online accounts now quickly publicize information about hospitals, evacuation routes or shelters.

"Social media would have provided an immediate way to help locate other survivors and get information," said Jeffrey Blevins, head of journalism at the University of Cincinnati.

Oberle also noted that "knowing what help was locally available... would have provided a clearer perspective of what to expect in the days to come".

- Citizen science -

Beyond emergency rescue, social media clips can also be a boon to understanding a disaster's cause.

When giant waves crashed into Indonesia's Aceh province, footage remained largely confined to handheld camcorders capturing the carnage.

Fast forward to 2018, when a quake-tsunami hit Indonesia's Palu city, killing more than 4,000 people, enough videos were taken on smartphones that scientists researching seismic activity were later able to use the clips to reconstruct its path and time between waves.

The piece of citizen science in 2020 used amateur videos to conclude it happened so fast because of underwater landslides close to shore.

But it's not all good news.

Scholars warn that disinformation and rumors have also hindered disaster responses.

When Hurricane Helene struck North Carolina in September, relief efforts were disrupted as tensions between locals and emergency workers rose over unfounded rumors including a higher hidden death toll and diverted aid.

Workers faced reported threats from local armed militias.

"This information was so malicious that FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) had to withdraw its teams from the area," said Aldrich.

"Social media has absolutely altered the field of disaster response for the good and the bad."

Yet perhaps the biggest change -- the free flow of information to the vulnerable -- has been beneficial.

Laura Kong of the Honolulu-based International Tsunami Information Center recently recalls how "2004 was such a tragedy".

"Because... we might have known there was an event, but we didn't have a way to tell anyone."