E-Waste Generated Per Second: Global Statistics
The dark side of your next upgrade
“About 1,967 kg of e-waste are generated per second worldwide.”
Source: UN Global E-waste Monitor; 62 million tonnes in 2022. View on dashboard →
Every upgrade has a shadow. The old phone in your drawer. The laptop you meant to recycle. The charger that came with something you no longer own. Multiply that by eight billion people and you get what the UN tracks in millions of tonnes every year.
Roughly two tonnes a second, disappearing into landfills, incinerators, and informal dumps. Only a fraction gets properly recycled. The rest leaks toxins into soil and water, while the gold and rare earths inside – materials we mine at enormous cost – are simply lost.
Shorter upgrade cycles, more devices, faster obsolescence. The counter can't fix any of that. It just makes the scale impossible to ignore.
Key figures
| Time unit | Approx. rate |
|---|---|
| Per second | ~1,967 kg (~2 tonnes) |
| Per minute | ~118,000 kg |
| Per day | ~170 million kg (~170,000 tonnes) |
| Per year | ~62 million tonnes (UN Global E-waste Monitor 2022) |
The UN has tracked global e-waste for years. Every report shows the same direction: more devices, shorter lifespans, and only a fraction recycled. The 62 million tonnes in 2022 are a record—and the next one will likely be higher.
Historical context (UN Global E-waste Monitor – global e-waste generated)
| Year | Global e-waste (million tonnes) | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 53.6 | — |
| 2021 | 57.4 | +7% |
| 2022 | 62.0 | +8% |
What is e-waste?
Discarded electronics—phones, laptops, cables, appliances. Often toxic, often valuable. Only a fraction is recycled properly; the rest harms health and the environment. Every region generates it as devices multiply and lifecycles shorten.
How the number is calculated
Exact calculation. The UN Global E-waste Monitor reports annual e-waste generation in tonnes (e.g. 62 million tonnes in 2022). We convert that to kilograms (62 million × 1,000 = 62 billion kg), then divide by the number of seconds in a year (31,536,000) to get kg per second: 62,000,000,000 ÷ 31,536,000 ≈ 1,967 kg/sec. The counter multiplies this rate by seconds elapsed since midnight (or since 1 January) to show “so far today” or “this year”.
Documents used for this calculation: UN Global E-waste Monitor (reports & data), ITU E-waste (Environment). Full methodology and uncertainties: methodology page.
E-waste statistics
- E-waste generated per second: ~1,967 kg
- E-waste generated per minute: ~118,000 kg
- E-waste generated per day: ~170 million kg (~170,000 tonnes)
About 170 million kg of e-waste are generated every day worldwide—over 60 million tonnes per year. Based on UN and other global e-waste reports.
Why e-waste keeps growing
More devices, shorter upgrade cycles, limited repair and reuse. Planned obsolescence and fashion-driven upgrades add to the pile. Regulation and better design can slow it—but the counter will stay high for a long time.
FAQ
- How much e-waste is generated per second worldwide?
- Roughly 1,967 kg (about two tonnes) of e-waste are generated globally every second. This is derived from UN data such as the Global E-waste Monitor (e.g. 62 million tonnes in 2022) converted to a per-second rate.
- How much e-waste is generated per day?
- Globally, about 170 million kg (roughly 170,000 tonnes) of e-waste are generated per day when the per-second rate is scaled up. Annual totals exceed 60 million tonnes.
- Why is e-waste growing?
- More devices, shorter product lifecycles, and limited repair and reuse options drive growth. The digital world's expansion has a direct physical cost in discarded electronics.
- How are e-waste statistics calculated?
- We use annual totals from sources like the UN Global E-waste Monitor and convert them into per-second, per-minute, and per-day rates. See our methodology page for full details.
Sources
Documents used for this statistic: UN Global E-waste Monitor (reports & data), ITU E-waste (Environment). Full methodology and uncertainties: methodology page.
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