Almost 45 Million Tons of E-waste Discarded Last Year (apnews.com)

A new study claims 44.7 million metric tons (49.3 million tons) of TV sets, refrigerators, cellphones and other electrical good were discarded last year, with only a fifth recycled to recover the valuable raw materials inside. From a report: The U.N.-backed study published Wednesday calculates that the amount of e-waste thrown away in 2016 included a million tons of chargers alone. The U.S. accounted for 6.3 million metric tons, partly due to the fact that the American market for heavy goods is saturated. The original study can be found here (PDF; Google Drive link).

Comments

Lead free solder and shitty caps

[Z80a]

They're probably responsible for half of this e-waste.

the west needs to change policies

[WindBourne]

First and foremost, we need to quit exporting our 'trash'. This is a resource that should be kept local and used.
Seriously, we have robotics that can dissemble many of the electronics. Some of it, i.e. the plastics, can, and should, be used for a thermal electricity. At the same time,the rest should be melted down and separated into various elements and then used right away, or stored. FOr example, the mercury and lead can be stored in old mines, until a new use is found for them (and we will).
The electricity generation and selling of some of the elements (gold, silver, etc) will likely pay for the rest.