It's worth its weight in gold! The EU wants more electronic junk recycled. The aim: to recover rare metals and protect the environment.

A-Z: E for Electronic Waste (II)

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/16109791/j002-0111-en_mf.srt

Let's all go to the dump! Here are  the fridges, the washing machines,

old computers, broken tellies, etc, etc!

We're throwing out more and more  electronic waste. 9 million tonnes a year!

If we carry on, we'll throw away  12 million tonnes in 2020.

So it doesn't pile up,  we'll have to recycle it, and quickly.

Break it into parts. Remove substances  harmful to health and the environment.

Recover the plastic and precious metals.

This doesn't look like anything rare,  but it's worth a fortune.

It's not waste, it's raw material -  copper, gold, silver -

and that's helpful to our industry,  because industry needs raw materials.

One tonne of electronic waste  has 50 times more gold

An EU law has set a new target for 2016.

Member States will have to recover  nearly half the electronic articles sold -

Shops will have to take back  our old machines.

75% of some products  will have to be recycled.

It's the only way for Europe  to produce rare minerals.

instead of buying  from other parts of the world.

And sometimes you can't find enough  rare earth metals or rare earth minerals.

No more question of letting our scrap  go to China, Africa or India.

The EU wants to stop  illegal trading of electronic waste.

There workers recover the metals  without any protection

and highly toxic computer components  are just disposed of anywhere.

For example, lead and cadmium.  They poison water courses

And what will become of  my shiny components?

To find out,  watch W for Electronic Waste