WEEE Ireland call on people of Mayo to rethink e-waste

WEEE Ireland has called on the people of Mayo to rethink e-waste as 14 million tonnes were discarded in bins.

According to new data from the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), household electronic and electrical waste amounted to 62 billion tonnes globally.

That amounts to 29 kilograms per home, however, only ten kilograms of e-waste was recycled per person in Mayo last year. 

Ahead of International E-Waste Day on Monday, October 14, the Global E-Waste Monitor 2024, reveals that nearly a quarter of e-waste ends up in household rubbish bins each year. Electronics packed with precious metals, plastics and other essential materials are going to waste. 

Ireland’s largest e-waste recycling scheme, WEEE Ireland, is now calling for a change in how people view waste items such as power tools, electronic toys, mobile phones, tech gadgets and other electrical and electronic goods. 

“Careless disposal represents a missed opportunity for recycling, as many of these items contain recoverable materials that can be used to make new products and squanders critical resources that are increasingly in scarce supply,” said CEO of WEEE Ireland, Leo Donovan.

"Recycling e-waste should no longer be viewed as merely disposing of old electronics that can’t be repaired or reused.

“Instead, Mayo people need to see it as an opportunity to recover all the valuable materials they contain. By adopting this mindset, we give a second life to items that are often considered ‘end of life’,” he added.

He stated that ‘the circular economy thrives when we stop thinking of these items as waste and start realising their value as resources’.

The Global E-Waste Monitor reported that the global amount of e-waste generated per household (62 billion tonnes) contained approximately four billion kilograms of metals, including 34 million kilograms of cobalt and 3.9 billion kilograms of aluminium, crucial for the electronics industry.  

However, just one percent of critical raw material requirements is met by current e-waste recycling, which needs to increase to 25 percent under the new Critical Raw Materials Act for Ireland and EU member states. 

Separate research conducted by Empathy Research for WEEE Ireland earlier this year showed that one in eight people in Ireland continues to dump small electrical items in household bins, rising to one in four among younger age groups.

WEEE Ireland was joined by members of the WEEE Forum, the organisation behind International E-Waste Day, to urge the public to stop carelessly discarding broken, unwanted electronic products with household waste.

Director General of the WEEE Forum, Pascal Leroy, commented: “The 844 million e-cigarettes thrown away reported in the 2024 Monitor contained enough lithium to power 15,000 electric cars,

“When properly handled, e-waste could reduce CO2 emissions by 93 million tonnes annually, equivalent to taking 20 million cars off the road.”

He concluded by urging the public to join the e-waste hunt and retrieve, recycle, and revive the thousands of items gathering dust in our homes. 

Everyone is encouraged to gather unused electronic devices and appliances from their homes and bring them to designated recycling centres, electrical retailers or participate in WEEE Ireland local recycling collection events.”