I have world 2006 e-waste statistics figures in Stat 0416 at 40 million tonnes, which would suggest 20% to be a better estimate than 25%. However, with the way e-waste has been growing annually, I would agree on the quarter proportion for Europe because the 8.3 million tonnes here was for 2005, so that is why I had put the quarter estimate in the headline statistic.

While Europe e-waste recycling seems to be low out of the entire potential to recycle 100%, it is probably high, or at least comparable, to anybody else world wide. America stands at 23% recycling e-waste in a Staples nationwide survey in Stat 0591 (not from actual tonnage data) that dealt with other more concrete e-waste statistics.

The source article was on how Europe could improve on its e-waste collection, although it counted appliances like microwaves, dishwashers, etc. as well as more typical e-waste of computers, cell phones and monitors, etc.  [Envirostats author]

Europe can do far more to recycle electronic waste ranging from mobile phones to freezers since most ends up on dumps despite years of collection efforts, a U.N. study showed on Thursday.

“There is a lot of room for improvement even though Europe is often seen as a good example,” said Ruediger Kuehr, manager of a study led by the U.N. University for the European Commission on how to salvage electronic and electric waste.

Among priorities were better collection of old fridges and freezers that release coolants when they rust that are powerful greenhouse gases that also damage the ozone layer.

- Reuters, Nov 15 2007

This is a hazard, sure, but as soon as I find some time for research, I’ll have more to say on why this mercury level is only of concern for the fact of having mercury to deal with rather than the amount because it is actually the lesser of two mercury impact sources related to lightbulbs. In other words, while I classify this statistic into the Hazardous Materials category, I will also classify it into the Sustainability category, for which reason I will post an Article post in the future. This is what looking at the numbers as I do gets me.

It was a lightbulb moment I just had trying to put a comment to this statistic. [Envirostats author]

- Reuters, Nov 15 2007

E-waste contains hazardous materials such as mercury, cadmium, lead and brominated flame retardants. 

41% of Americans either throw e-waste in the trash or don’t dispose of them at all. This 41% is of the whole, not a share of the 77%.

The percentage of American disposing of e-waste were provided in a national survey by Staples, of which not much is known like sample size. However, let’s hope they had enough common sense to do a typical survey of about 1,000 with 3% error 19 times out of 20 to achieve validity generally required in the media.

Don’t forget, the 133,000 computers are those discarded and not recycled or reused. The number amounting to a daily e-waste total from computers alone would be larger than that by some significant amount, although it is not certain how much larger. [Envirostats author]

Staples makes it easy to recycle a range of used technology items every day in its 1,400 stores nationwide. In May 2007, Staples became the first national retailer to launch an in-store, everyday computer and office technology recycling program. Staples accepts all brands of items, regardless of whether they were purchased at Staples, and recycles them for a $10 fee.

- US annual e-waste statistic by US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

- Computers discarded daily statistic provided by the National Recycling Coalition, quote by their Executive Director Kate Krebs

- Survey results by Staples

- Green Progress, Nov 12 2007

Digital cameras are suffering from the same sort of “trendiness” turnover as cell phones. These don’t seem to include digital SLRs, though, because Nikon isn’t left out of the market if you include them. But here’s my question then, if the digital SLRs are not included, why are so many of these digital cameras selling with the phones having picture features these days? Sure, they’re not as good, but a lot of people don’t care for a second item to carry around for their casual fun pictures anyway, and the camera phones are getting better.

Research firm IDC, in its quarterly report, said camera makers shipped 8.4 million units, fuelled by customers desire for fashionable models with new features such as image stabilization.

Japan’s Canon Inc. remained the top selling brand, with a 23 per cent market share. Next was Sony Inc. at 18 per cent, while Eastman Kodak had a 15 per cent share, IDC said.

South Korea’s Samsung saw its U.S. market share halved to about 4 per cent, IDC said.

Digital camera shipments so far this year have been stronger than expected, reversing a trend of declining growth seen over the past four years.

In many cases cameras, which come in multiple colours, have become a kind of fashion item, much like tiny mobile phones or Apple Inc’s iPod digital music player.

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Total sales were $1.1-billion, compared with $643-million a year earlier, according to market research firm NPD.

Nintendo sold 519,000 Wiis while Microsoft Corp. sold 366,000 Xbox 360 consoles and Sony Corp. sold 121,000 of its PlayStation 3 machines.

In September, the Xbox 360 knocked the Wii from the top spot it had held all year, thanks to a boost from the release of Microsoft’s blockbuster ‘Halo 3′ game.

This stuff will eventually end up as e-waste, of course, but the time to make the change is now. [Envirostats author]

- The Globe & Mail (cameras) and The Globe & Mail (video games), Nov 16 2007

What do you do when your hard drive gets full or when you want to back-up some of the stuff on your computer?

I, personally, prefer the DVDs for back-up media these days. They are durable, cheap and have a lot of storage space. DVDs are cheaper than CDs now, by the way, per disc and per gigabyte so let’s put CDs out of the picture, shall we? DVDs also make for great coasters if you erroneously back-up stuff, like grouping things not quite the way it should have been, as do the CDs you no longer have, although I would recommend for that, if they were music CDs, put them back into society and the economy by either selling them or just giving them to a used “record” store as your RAK (random act of kindness) for the day.

Anyway, to my main point, what about all that stuff on your computer that is “irreplaceable”? I mean truly irreplaceable, not just “priceless” funny stuff you saw on YouTube or whatever that’s still there and you just have to find it again. Whether it is photos or original writings and music or something else, what about all that? Well, DVDs would definitely hold them. However, let me suggest on-line storage.

On-line storage has become so cheap now that unless they’re digital home videos in size, for far less than your home insurance, or a drinking night out for students, you could store all your digital stuff on-line. If you only have small documents, as in under 10 MB each, you could even do it for free, even though it might be tedious. What you do is upload to these places, whether Box.net storage services, or Flickr.com for photos, etc. (because I’m no Net expert to scope out a review of all these places but I’m sure reviews are available) which for a small annual fee, allows you tremendous storage space. If you have the time to separate your files into 10 MB or small size groups, you can email them to yourself in some on-line email accounts only for storage. Just don’t tell anyone what they are, or even better, don’t tell them you have those accounts at all. Preferably, don’t access those accounts anywhere but where you feel safest, either.

But what is the real value of on-line back-up storage?

The easy answer would be reduction of solid waste, but I doubt that’d be enough to motivate all but the greenest people to do this. The real value is that it’s not in your home so if your home gets looted or burned to the ground, all that truly irreplaceable stuff isn’t gone. You just go to another computer and it’ll all be there.

Isn’t that a nice and comforting thought? Let’s see your insurance broker guarantee you replacement for your irreplaceable computer property!

Minh Tan
Envirostats author