More than 18 million children and adolescents working at e-waste dumpsites in low- and middel-income countries are potentially at the risk of severe health hazards, the World Health Organization said in its recent report. The new report, titled Children and Digital Dumpsites and published June 15, 2021, underlined the risk children working in the informal processing faced due to discarded electronic devices or e-waste. As many 18 million children — as young as five years — and about 12.9 million women work at these e-waste dumpsites ever year, the report said. The e-waste from high-income countries is dumped in the middle- or low-income countries for processing every year. Children are especially preferred at these dumpsites because of their small and dexterous hands. About 53.6 million tonnes of e-waste was generated in 2019, according to the Global E-waste Statistics Partnership. Only 17.4 per cent of this e-waste was processed in formal recycling facilities. The rest of it was dumped in low- or middle-income countries for illegal processing by informal workers.
— source downtoearth.org.in | 16 Jun 2021
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