A vendor selling used remote controls for various home appliances takes a nap in Nhat Tao market, the largest informal recycling market in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Sunday, Jan. 28, 2024. A man sitting on a scooter purchases a used remote control for a home appliance from a vendor in Nhat Tao market, the largest informal recycling market in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024. The world is producing more electronic waste than ever.
Managing that waste is crucial. It’s filling up landfills at an alarming pace and dangerous chemicals like lead leak into the environment and harm human health. It also means missing out on recoverable resources — $62 billion worth in 2022, according to the U.N. report.Less than a quarter of electronic waste was properly collected and recycled in 2022. Some of the rest winds up in the hands of informal waste workers, like Nguyen, in different parts of the world.
It’s demanding work that doesn’t come with health benefits or a retirement plan. Nguyen’s health is OK, but he worries about potentially dangerous chemicals in the electronic devices he dismantles without protective gear. Bel said that formal recyclers should try and work with informal workers to get access to more waste without hurting the livelihoods of the informal workers. That could have other advantages, like mitigating health risks for the informal workers, and ensuring that they don’t cherry-pick the most valuable parts of any waste and dump the rest.
Nguyen said that a similar collaboration of informal and formal waste workers in Vietnam would be great for informal workers in Vietnam. He’d have more computers to fix and salvage and make more money. “If we could formalize our work, that would be perfect,” he said.