Dive Brief:

• Researchers in Norway are working on a process that they hope will lead to a method for disintegrating electronics.
• The experiments include designing components that disintegrate after a set amount of time. 
• So far, scientists have been successful in producing components equipped with magnesium circuits that transfer energy, and then dissolve in water within hours.

Dive Insight:

E-waste is a huge—and growing—sustainability problem. Consumers in the U.S. discarded 135,000,000 mobile phones, 23 million televisions, and 24 million computer monitors in 2010 alone. 

Scientists hope that the discovery could lead to a significant reduction in the volumes of e-waste inundating the environment, and aid in curbing the presence of hazardous substances that leak from electronics, including lead, cadmium, and mercury.