United Nations Radio

There's a warning that millions of discarded mobile phones and computers are posing a major challenge to human health.

The head of the UN Environment Programme Achim Steiner told a UN conference on waste management in Bali, Indonesia that "the rapid growth and rapid redundancy of all this equipment, represents a major challenge to the international community in terms of human health and the environment."

He says "the growth in electronics is unlikely to abate any time soon, especially as disposable incomes rise in the rapidly developing and developing economies."

According to Steiner, much of the waste is ending up in landfills usually in developing countries in Africa and Asia where it leaks chemicals and heavy metals into the environment.

He says 20 to 50 million tonnes of electronics waste is produced every year - enough to load a train that would stretch around the world.

The disposal of massive numbers of unwanted electronics good is the key focus of the five-day meeting of parties to the 1992 Basel Convention on waste management.

More than 1,000 delegates from 170 countries are taking part in the talks to review the impact of hazardous waste on human health and livelihoods.

The Basel Convention is an international treaty that regulates the global trade in hazardous waste and aims to minimize its generation and movement.

This is Donn Bobb reporting for United Nations Radio.

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