Experts Urge Tech Manufacturers to Harness Recycled Plastics for New Products
Wednesday, October 16, 2019 - 08:52:00
The European Commission is launching a new initiative this month in order to draw awareness to the issue of plastic use in the electronics sector, specifically relating to the fact that devices such as mobile phones are often made with large amounts of plastic which is not sustainably sourced.
BBC News reports that the PolyCE project intends to take on the challenge of both highlighting the issues of e-waste in general and more specifically of ensuring that this industry can become more eco-friendly in the long term by dealing with complications that exist at the manufacturing stage.
Close to a fifth of the total volume of e-waste materials which are disposed of each year is made up of plastic. Campaigners argue that this needs to be dealt with sooner rather than later because e-waste is projected to double within the next quarter of a century.
Spokesperson Ruediger Kuehr said that the annual rises in e-waste were a cause for concern and one of the ways to improve the state of play is to insist on the use of recycled plastics in any new electronics that are made going forwards.
Kuehr also said that there was a need to ensure that all nations of the world were able to embrace the kinds of technologies that we take for granted in the UK without facing steep financial and environmental costs.
For example, rolling out 5G networking in poorer countries rather than installing landline connections at far greater expense is seen as both fiscally and ecologically sensible.
Another issue is the regularity with which mobile devices are being upgraded by consumers in the West, which is seen as unsustainable at the moment without a greater emphasis being put on reselling and recycling old phones.
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