Dive Brief:

• A global e-waste study conducted on behalf of the United Nations (UN) determined that the recycling rate in the U.S. for end-of-life electronics and appliances is 15%; however, an analysis raises questions about the accuracy of the figures.
• A detailed look into the Global E-Waste Monitor 2014, Flows and Resources study shows that although electronics and appliances were both used to figure out the amount of materials the U.S. discarded, 2.8 million tons of appliances should have been counted, but were not. 
• The discrepancy was explained by co-author Feng Wang, who said that researchers didn’t include the appliance totals because they weren’t part of official recovery programs. 

Dive Insight:

The U.S. and China are in the spotlight as the top e-waste producing countries in the world. The release of the study has reinforced that the two countries disposed of almost one-third of the world’s e-waste in 2014.