What is e-waste?
Electronic waste (e-waste) is simply discarded electrical and electronic equipment and is one of the largest global waste streams. Unfortunately, much of it ends up in landfill, polluting the environment. Up to 50 million tonnes are disposed of each year – a sizeable and expensive waste stream to deal with, or perhaps a valuable resource for new materials and products.
Resources
The lesson plans below contain activities and fact sheets to guide learning
Lesson plan 1:
introduces the e-waste problem and solutions
Lesson plan 2:
looks at metal recovery to conserve natural resources
Did you know?
There are 7.2 billion mobile phones in use today
300 million computers are made every year
of e-waste is currently recycled
17.4%