The U.S. generated about 258.2 million units of used computers, monitors, TVs and cellphones in 2010, 171.4 million of which were collected for recycling, and 14.4 million were exported, according to a United Nations report. By 2017, the global volume of discarded refrigerators, TVs, cellphones, computers, monitors and other electronic waste will weigh almost as much as 200 Empire State Buildings, a new report predicts. But the biggest producer of e-waste is the United States, with an astonishing 9,359,000 tonnes produced in 2012, about 29 kilograms per person, according to the map, which was created by a number of agencies through their “solving e-waste problem” (StEP) initiative. "Although there is ample information about the negative environmental and health impacts of primitive e-waste recycling methods, the lack of comprehensive data has made it hard to grasp the full magnitude of the problem," Kuehr said in the report. "This is why we have developed this e-waste map. "The e-waste problem requires attention globally," Ruediger Kuehr of the U.N. University and executive secretary of the Solving the E-Waste Problem (StEP) initiative, told Reuters. In that year, the West produced 23.5 million tonnes of waste and all others 25.4 million, a shift from the previous estimates for 2007 when the West accounted for most, StEP said. By 2017, it would make the annual piles of old washing machines, computers, fridges, electronic toys and other goods with an electric cord or battery the weight equivalent of 200 Empire State Buildings or 11 Great Pyramids of Giza, it said. It has a much smaller population than the U.S., 520,000, compared to more than 314 million, but more new electrical and electronic equipment comes to the market in Luxembourg per capita. The weight of electronic goods discarded every year worldwide would rise to 65.4 million tonnes from 2012 to 2017 from 48.9 million in 2012, with most of the growth in developing nations, StEP said. The U.S. generated the seventh highest amount of e-waste per person — about 66 lbs. One study estimated that a million cellphones can yield 24 kg (53 lb) of gold, 250 kg of silver, 9 kg of palladium and more than 9 tonnes of copper. According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Brazil generates the greatest amount of electronic waste (e-waste) per capita among emerging countries. Separately, U.S.-based experts trying to track the fate of waste said that about two-thirds of U.S. electronics waste is collected for re-use or recycling and that only 8.5 percent of the collected units are exported. MOUNTAINS OF TRASH 
 
 By 2017, trash from the West would rise to 28.6 million tonnes, far less than the 36.7 million from other countries, a side-effect of the economic rise of emerging nations such as India, Brazil and South Africa. Sunday's report also showed that the average person on the planet produces 7 kg of electronic waste every year. “Why won’t these same smart people also find a way that electronics can be used longer or reused in the best way, too?” she asked.
– Electronic waste is growing at a staggering rate—Americans alone chucked an average of 65 pounds of old electronic goods each last year—and it is set to surge another 33% within five years unless consumers and producers change their ways, LiveScience reports. Most of the waste ends up in developing nations, and those countries plus the former Soviet bloc now produce more electronic waste of their own than Western nations, according to a new map that tracks the problem worldwide for the first time. The world produced around 54 million tons of electronic waste in total last year, researchers found, and though it can be valuable—a million old cell phones can yield 53 pounds of gold and 550 pounds of silver, Reuters notes—recycling rates remain low and where e-waste is recycled, it is often done so in a way harmful to both the environment and workers' health. The rate of waste is so high because engineers are constantly creating innovative designs to lure people to buy more, an earth sciences professor tells the Toronto Star. "Why won’t these same smart people also find a way that electronics can be used longer or reused in the best way, too?”