BERLIN (AP) — The mountain of refrigerators, cellphones, TVsets and other electrical waste
disposed of annually worldwide isforecast to grow by a third by 2017, according to a U.N. study
releasedSunday.E-waste — defined as anything with a battery or a cord —can pose a big problem because it
often contains substances that areharmful to humans and the environment if not properly treated. On theother
hand, some of it can be profitably recycled.A U.N. thinktank dedicated to the issue estimates that the
amount of e-waste willrise from almost 48.9 million metric tons (53.9 million tons) in 2012 to65.4 million
metric tons (72.09 million tons) in 2017. That’s nearly200 times the weight of the Empire State Building.The
U.S. dumpedthe most last year, generating 9.4 million metric tons of e-waste,followed by China with 7.3
million metric tons.Per capita theU.S. was even further ahead, with almost 30 kilograms (66 pounds)
ofhigh-tech trash for China’s 5.4 kilograms (12 pounds). The globalaverage is 7 kilograms (15 pounds) per
person.But China iscatching up, evidenced by the fact that it had the highest volume ofelectrical goods put
on the market last year with 11.1 million metrictons. The U.S. had about 10 million metric tons.Taken
together,developing and emerging countries already produce as much e-waste as thedeveloped world, said
Ruediger Kuehr, who heads the StEP secretariat,based at the United Nations University in Bonn,
Germany."There isa hunger of humankind for technology that makes our lives easier,"Kuehr told The
Associated Press. "It’s not only the communicationtechnologies but also medical devices, washing
machines and e-toys thatare very popular around Christmas time."The report, which basedits findings on
estimates of how long such products last, and hard dataon discarded products in several country, is the
first time thatglobally comparable data on e-waste have been publicly released, hesaid.It was published in
tandem with a study by the MassachusettsInstitute of Technology and the U.S. National Center for
ElectronicsRecycling tracking the flow of such scrap across borders.Thestudy, which excluded white goods
because there are establishedrecycling systems for those in the United States, found that mobilephones are
the most common item of e-waste in the U.S.About 120 million phones were discarded in 2010. Many of those
ended up going to Hong Kong, Latin America and the Caribbean.Theauthors of the study called for better
monitoring of e-waste exports,saying lack of consistent categories makes it hard to formulateeffective rules
for the treatment of electrical junk.___Online map of e-waste by country
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