The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has been mandated to prepare patent landscape reports in areas of particular interest to developing and least developed countries, such as public health, food security, climate change and environment.For that purpose, WIPO is developing in cooperation with interested external partners the scope of each report.

The e-Waste Recycling Technologies Patent Landscape Report was prepared in the context of collaboration of WIPO with the Secretariat of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, which is administered by UNEP. The report aims at providing patent based evidence on the available technologies and the patenting trends in the area of electronic waste (e-waste) recycling and material recovery, while it is intended to provide background and supporting information to the Partnership for Action on Computing Equipment under the Basel Convention and complement the Guideline on Material Recovery and Recycling of End-of-Life Mobile Phones and the Guideline on Environmentally Sound Material Recovery and Recycling of End-of-Life Computing Equipment. The report was launched in cooperation with the Geneva Environment Network Secretariat in December 2013.

It was the occasion to remind that the lack of a standard definition of e-waste creates problems of quantification and identification of the sector. Around 50 million tons of e-waste are generated globally annually and that domestic generation accounts for a significant proportion of e-waste in all countries. Around 15 to 20% of the world’s e-waste is recycled annually; however, e-waste recycling rates are progressing at an average rate of 18% annually. The North-South direction of e-waste trade is shifting to a South-South direction. By 2025, the developing world will generate double the developed world’s waste computers.

More information:
patrick.micheli@brsmeas.org