Researchers studied e-waste generation over five years in 12 Asian countries including China, which saw the amount of e-waste it produced more than double. From 2010 to 2015, the volume of electronic waste generated in East and South-East Asia rose 63 per cent, according to a report from the United Nations University.  The rise is big but not unexpected for nations seeing rapid economic growth, says Jason Linnell, who leads US non-profit body the National Center for Electronics Recycling.

Electrical or electronic devices are not always properly recycled or disposed of. Instead, such e-waste is often burned or washed in acid to extract the valuable metals inside. This can pollute water and air, and lead to cancers and fertility problems in workers exposed to the fumes.  Although Asia generates the highest volume of e-waste as a continent, Europe and the Americas generate about four times as much per capita – and much of this waste is exported to poorer countries that lack the infrastructure to safely recycle it.

Gadgets and toys with plugs and/or batteries are proliferating and there seems to be no organised way or place to recycle them.  Where I live no one will accept old batteries for recycling, and one has to dispose of them in the household trash, which I hate doing.  One can take computers and such to the government dump on specific days, usually one Saturday a month, but what happens to it after that I have no idea, except that  almost certainly ends up in a landfill on some continent or other  I myself even wash and re-use shrink-wrap film used in the kitchen to reduce the amount of non-biodegradable stuff we throw out – but I am almost certainly regarded as eccentric.