With our growing appetite for electrical and electronic products, combined with rapid innovation and ever-shorter product lifespans, e-waste has now become one of the fastest growing waste streams. E-waste can be a threat to our planet. Illegal and poorly managed e-waste is polluting our environment, harming human health, and contributing to human-made climate change. The worst impacts are often in the countries that are least equipped to manage it.
UNEP in collaboration with the Basel Convention, World Resources Forum, University of Leuven, EIT RawMaterials, and the European Multiple MOOC Aggregator, is opening a new Massive On-line Open Course (MOOC) on “E-waste". This course will help you to understand why and how we must manage e-waste in an environmentally sound manner and how you can take action on e-waste in your own life, business, or organization.
The aims of the course are to:
- Show how sound management of e-waste can help reduce GHG emissions and prevent hazards to health and the environment in accordance with the Basel, Rotterdam, and Stockholm Conventions;
- Share best practices, technological innovations, and sustainable e-waste recovery and recycling business models; and
- Explore how the value in e-waste can be extracted in a way that supports the local economy and protects people’s health and the environment.
