Page 190 - BEATS Secondary School
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Richer than Mark
Zuckerberg:
The Waste Dump
- Kashika Lath, MYP 4
Yes, that is true. Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth is about $61 billion while
annually, all the e-waste created is worth $62.5 billion. That is more than
123 countries’ GDP!
So, why is the value of e-waste so much? The global amount of waste
generated has so much value because it contains high numbers of precious
metals like gold, copper and nickel and rare elements like indium and
palladium.
As of 2016, there are 44.7 million tons of e-waste, and it only keeps
increasing at a higher pace, every day. UN believes if nothing is done to
correct this, mankind will be struck with an ‘e-waste tsunami’. According
to statistics, the amount of e-waste will be doubled by 2060.
All this e-waste can be molded into 1, 25, 000 jumbo jets which is more
than all the commercial aircraft ever created or be used to make 4500
Eiffel Towers.
So next time when you throw away that smartphone, remember, you are
throwing away money!