Rapport

National E-waste Monitor 2025 - Norway

D'Angelo, Elena; Schubert, Maximillian; Balde, Cornelis Peter; Yamamoto, Tales; Bourgé, Émilien; Abbasi, Golnoush

The National E-waste Monitor 2025 – Norway provides a detailed assessment of the current situation of e-waste statistics and legislation, and an outlook on e-waste statistics up to 2050.

Norway is the world’s leading nation in Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) generation per capita, producing 27.5 kg per person in 2022, equivalent to 149 kt.

However, the country has established an efficient collection system, successfully gathering 72% of generated e-waste, with 107 kt tons collected in 2022 (approximately 19.5 kg per capita).

The country’s WEEE stock has seen significant growth over the past decade, expanding from 14 million tons in 2010 to nearly 20 million tons in 2022. However, based on the monitor’s results, the implementation of robust Circular Economy measures could help EEE Put on the Market in Norway reaching, by 2050, half of the to 2010 levels (67 kt). The big drop is explained by more repairability and improved durability of EEE products; by contrast, the projection in a Business as Usual scenario would be 5 times higher (294 kt) than in the Circular Economy scenario.

In terms of international trade, Norway reported 20 kt of used EEE exports for reuse, primarily within the European Union. Legal WEEE exports saw an increase from 27 kt in 2022 to 38 kt in 2023. Authorities intercepted 15.5 t of illegal exports due to inadequate documentation and functionality testing.

Upcoming country investments may go in the direction of recycling technologies for rare earth metals and precious materials recovery, improved small electronics collection systems, stricter labelling requirements for recyclable components and hazardous substances.

While Norway’s e-waste management system is already considered exemplary, the monitor’s results emphasize the need for more ambitious targets aligned with the WEEE Directive to create a truly sustainable and circular electronics management system. The focus is now shifting toward public awareness campaigns to encourage repair over replacement and the development of more efficient collection methods for small electronic devices.

Citation: E. D’Angelo, M. Schubert, T. Yamamoto, C.P. Baldé, E. Bourgé and G. Abbasi, United Nations Institute for Training and Research, NILU, “National E-waste monitor 2025 - Norway”, 2025, Bonn/Oslo, Germany and Norway.

NILU

Analyse av miljøgifter i antikvariske bygninger. For prosjektet Gift i bygningsvernet underlagt kulturmiljøforvaltningen

Lysberg, Ingeborg Antonsen; Håland, Alexander; Vadset, Marit; Pfaffhuber, Katrine Aspmo; Bohlin-Nizzetto, Pernilla

NILU har, på vegne av Telemarksforskning og Norsk Folkemuseum, analysert miljøgifter i støv, luft og materialprøver fra utvalgte antikvariske bygg. Målet var å kartlegge nivåer av miljøgifter brukt i tidligere konserveringsarbeid. Studien omfattet analyser av tungmetaller, PAH og pesticider i støv fra ni bygninger, screening av VOC i luft, samt materialprøver fra tre bygninger. Resultatene viste bekymringsverdige nivåer av tungmetaller, PAH og pesticider i støv, og svært høye nivåer av PCP i to av tre materialprøver, til tross for lav totalmengde VOC.

NILU

Air quality maps of EEA member and cooperating countries for 2023. PM10, PM2.5, O3, NO2, NOx and BaP spatial estimates and their uncertainties

Horálek, Jan; Vlasáková, Leona; Schreiberová, Markéta; Benešová, Nina; Schneider, Philipp; Kurfürst, Pavel; Tognet, Frédéric; Vlček, Ondřej; Školoudová, Lucie

The report provides the annual update of the European air quality concentration maps and population and vegetation exposure estimates for human health related indicators of pollutants PM10 (annual average, 90.4 percentile of daily means), PM2.5 (annual average), ozone (93.2 percentile of maximum daily 8-hour means, peak season average of maximum daily 8-hour means, SOMO35, SOMO10), NO2 (annual average) and benzo(a)pyrene (annual average), and vegetation related ozone indicators (AOT40 for vegetation and for forests) for the year 2023. The report contains also maps of Phytotoxic ozone dose (PODY) for selected crops (wheat, potato and tomato) and trees (spruce and beech) and NOx annual average map for the same year 2023. The trends in exposure estimates in the period 2005-2023 are summarized. The analysis for 2023 is based on the interpolation of the annual statistics of the 2023 observational data reported by the EEA member and cooperating countries and other voluntary reporting countries and stored in the Air Quality e-reporting database, complemented, when needed, with measurements from additional sources. The mapping method is the Regression – Interpolation – Merging Mapping (RIMM). It combines monitoring data, chemical transport model results and other supplementary data using linear regression model followed by kriging of its residuals (residual kriging). The report presents the mapping results and gives an uncertainty analysis of the interpolated maps. It also presents concentration change in 2023 in comparison to the 5-year average 2018-2022 using the difference maps and exposure estimates.

European Topic Centre on Human Health and the Environment (ETC HE)

EEA´s revision of the European air quality index bands

Ortiz, Alberto González; Soares, Joana; Targa, Jaume; Colina, Maria; Azcón, Laia; Banyuls, Lorena; Tobollik, Myriam; Monge, Silvia; Finnbjornsdottir, Ragnhildur

The European Air quality index has been updated and now its bands take into consideration the World Health Organization global air quality guidelines, published in 2021. A subindex per pollutant is calculated based on hourly data (including for PM, for which running 24-hours averages were considered before) and on the risk of short-term mortality. The worst pollutant subindex categorizes the index. The health messages linked to the different index categories remain unchanged.

European Topic Centre on Human Health and the Environment (ETC HE)

Assessing the environmental burden of disease related to air pollution in Europe in 2023

Soares, Joana; Plass, Dietrich; Kienzler, Sarah; Ortiz, Alberto González; Gsella, Artur; Horálek, Jan

This report evaluates the environmental burden of disease (EBD) linked to long-term exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and ozone (O3) across 41 European countries in 2023. Using the key health indicators—attributable deaths, years of life lost, years lived with disability, and disability-adjusted life years—the analysis quantifies the health impacts of air pollution above concentrations defined as the World Health Organisation’s air quality guideline levels. Approximately 206,000 deaths are attributable to PM2.5, while about 56,000 and 71,000 deaths area attributable to NO2 and O3, respectively. The disease burden from PM2.5 was highest due to its association with multiple health outcomes, with high baseline prevalence and mortality. Results highlight strong regional disparities, with South-Eastern Europe most affected by health effects from PM2.5 and NO2, and Southern Europe by those from O3. Findings underscore the need for targeted policies to reduce pollutant-specific health impacts in Europe.

European Topic Centre on Human Health and the Environment (ETC HE)