Are our electronics threatening the planet? — Ahmad Ibrahim
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First Published: Friday, 03 Jul 2026 9:17 AM MYT
JULY 3 — We now live in an age of electronics abundance—but it’s an abundance with a disconcerting hangover. The world generates over 50 million tons of e-waste every year. That’s equivalent to throwing away 1,000 laptops every second. Most of it ends up in landfills or is illegally shipped to developing countries, where it poisons the soil and the people who scavenge it. Enter the idea of the circular economy (CE). It sounds like corporate jargon, but it’s actually a radical, beautiful idea: what if nothing was ever “waste” in the first place?
A new, rigorous study—a systematic literature review by Singh, Aggarwal, and Garg—has sifted through years of research to answer a pressing question: Why isn’t the electronics sector already circular, and what will actually make it work? Most people think the solution is better recycling. But Singh and his team discovered something surprising: recycling is the last resort. The real blocks happen much earlier.
