An End to Electronic Waste: Building the E-waste Coalition

The transition towards a more digital world and a growing information society and economy offer unprecedented opportunities for sustainable development. At the same time, they contribute to the growth of the global consumption of electrical and electronic equipment, and – consequently – to growing amounts of electronic (e)-waste.

Used, broken, or obsolete equipment, such as phones, laptops, sensors, TVs, and fridges contain substances that pose considerable human health and environmental risks, especially if treated inadequately. Today, most e-waste is not properly documented nor treated through appropriate recycling chains and methods, whilst circular economy thinking has not been fully adopted. Thus, the amount of e-waste is growing rapidly and large dump sites exist throughout the world.

This High-Level Dialogue follows a similar event which took place last year during the 2018 World Summit on the Information Society, where seven United Nations entities signed a Letter of Intent expressing their commitment towards tackling the e-waste challenge. This time round, an additional three entities (World Health Organization, International Trade Centre and UN Human Settlements Programme) will express their commitment.

The dialogue will provide a platform for the exchange of views on the current e-waste management challenge and on considering concrete actions for building the E-waste Coalition, taking into account the comparative advantages of the different actors involved.