E-waste in Singapore: What’s the current situation?
Having looked at the overall state of e-waste in the world in the past few posts, let’s take a closer dive into the current situation closer to home—right here in Singapore.
According to a study conducted by the NEA, around 60,000 tonnes of e-waste is generated each year (Bhunia, 2018). To put things into perspective, that’s equivalent to 11 kg per person, the same as if every person in Singapore discarded 70 mobile phones in a year! Shocking, isn’t it? You may not think that our tiny little red dot generates that much e-waste in a year, but the truth is that it does.
The current state of e-waste in Singapore (NEA, 2018).
If handled and dismantled correctly, electronic products can be recycled and reused. However, the NEA study discovered that only a meagre 6% of the e-waste produced was successfully recycled (around 3,660 tonnes). This means that we have a long way to go before we can be satisfied with the state of e-waste disposal in Singapore. The state of waste disposal here is also especially worrying considering that the only landfill in Singapore is projected to run out of space by 2035—we need to find a way to deal with our e-waste problem, and fast.
References
NEA. (2018). Stakeholders Sharing Responsibility Is Key To Building A Sustainable E-Waste Management System: NEA Study. Retrieved 3 February 2022, from https://www.nea.gov.sg/media/news/news/index/stakeholders-sharing-responsibility-is-key-to-building-a-sustainable-e-waste-management-system-nea-study.