Page 188 - BEATS Secondary School

Richer than Mark

Zuckerberg:

The Waste Dump

- Kashika Lath, MYP 4

Yes, that is true. Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth is about $61 billion while

annually, all the e-waste created is worth $62.5 billion. That is more than

123 countries’ GDP!

So, why is the value of e-waste so much? The global amount of waste

generated has so much value because it contains high numbers of precious

metals like gold, copper and nickel and rare elements like indium and

palladium.

As of 2016, there are 44.7 million tons of e-waste, and it only keeps
increasing at a higher pace, every day. UN believes if nothing is done to

correct this, mankind will be struck with an ‘e-waste tsunami’. According

to statistics, the amount of e-waste will be doubled by 2060.

All this e-waste can be molded into 1, 25, 000 jumbo jets which is more

than all the commercial aircraft ever created or be used to make 4500

Eiffel Towers.

So next time when you throw away that smartphone, remember, you are
throwing away money!