The report says charging first-class e-waste weighs as much as 9 million tons a year.

CTOnews.com, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) according to the latest survey data, the weight of e-cigarettes thrown away around the world every year is equivalent to that of three Brooklyn Bridges, charging heads and other "invisible" e-waste weigh 9 billion kilograms (9 million tons) a year.

At the recent waste Motor and Electronic equipment (WEEE) Forum, Magdalena Charytanowicz said that consumers will not pay too much attention to discarding small digital products such as e-cigarettes, charging heads and U disks, but these electronic products usually contain harmful substances such as lead or mercury, which may seep from landfills and pollute the soil and water.

CTOnews.com note: hoarding these electronic devices at home is not an ideal choice, although manufacturers can recycle gold and other valuable materials, but the overall market recovery rate is very low.

According to the WEEE Forum, the value of recycled materials (mainly iron, copper and gold) from electronics could reach $9.5 billion in 2019 alone.

Copper-containing cables abandoned in 2022 can circle the earth 107 times. Copper is essential for renewable energy, electric vehicles and so on, and is expected to soar this decade.

The e-cigarettes that end up in the trash (like other rechargeable devices) are a waste of lithium, a key battery mineral that the world will need to transition to cleaner energy and transportation.

"millions of e-cigarettes are thrown into the dustbin every week," Pascal Leroy, director-general of the WEEE Forum, said at a news conference. "this is a matter of great concern."