Emerging nations dumping more e-waste than West, report says

China and other emerging economies have overtaken Western nations in dumping electronic goods, from televisions to mobile phones, and will lead a projected 33 per cent surge in the amount of waste from 2012 to 2017, a UN-backed alliance said yesterday.

The report, the first to map electronic waste by country to promote recycling and safer disposal, shows how the rise of developing nations is transforming the world economy even in terms of pollution.

"The e-waste problem requires attention globally," said Ruediger Kuehr of the UN University and executive secretary of the Solving the E-Waste Problem initiative. StEP is run by United Nations agencies, governments, NGOs and scientists.

The weight of electronic goods discarded every year worldwide would rise to 65.4 million tonnes by 2017 from 48.9 million tonnes last year, with most of the growth in developing nations, StEP said.

By 2017, the annual piles of old washing machines, computers, refrigerators, toys and other goods with an electric cord or battery would weigh as much as 11 Great Pyramids of Giza, it said.

Some waste from rich countries ends up in developing nations, where many people work in hazardous conditions for low wages dismantling it.

Waste from emerging countries, as well as Russia and other former Soviet bloc nations, overtook totals from Western nations, Japan and Australia around 2012, StEP data showed.