Connecting the world and beyond

E-waste Statistics Guidelines

NEW The second edition of “E-waste Statistics: Guidelines for Classification, Reporting and Indicators” provides a universally relevant e-waste measurement framework and a classification of e-waste. The guidelines facilitate the implementation of harmonized concepts to measure the size of a country’s e-waste market, its transboundary e-waste movement and the e-waste recycling performance within that country.

The guidelines also provide tools, practical guidelines, mathematical methodologies, and will help countries understand how to gather data sources in order to compile internationally comparable e-waste statistics.

Guiding countries in their data collection is particularly necessary as to date only 41 countries report compiling national statistics on e-waste.

Measuring e-waste is an important step towards addressing the e-waste challenge since statistics help to evaluate developments over time, set and assess targets, and identify best practices in policies. Better e-waste data will also eventually contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), in particular SDG 12, to “ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns,” as well as other SDGs. It will also help track the global target to reduce the amount of e-waste set by the ITU’s Membership as part of the Connect 2020 agenda.

The Guidelines are published by the United Nations University (UNU), under the Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development, and with financing from the Global E-waste Statistics Partnership (ITU, UNU, ISWA). It has undergone a public consultation and has been endorsed by ITU, ESCAP, ESCWA, OECD, UNCTAD, UNECA, Eurostat and UNEP/SBC.

Connecting the world and beyond

E-waste Statistics Guidelines

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