{"id":13478,"date":"2026-01-06T23:59:47","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T23:59:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wearable-health-devices-could-generate-a-million-tons-of-e-waste-by-2050\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T23:59:47","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T23:59:47","slug":"wearable-health-devices-could-generate-a-million-tons-of-e-waste-by-2050","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wearable-health-devices-could-generate-a-million-tons-of-e-waste-by-2050\/","title":{"rendered":"Wearable health devices could generate a million tons of e-waste by 2050"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p id=\"speakable-summary\" class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This week in Las Vegas, tech companies at CES 2026 are unveiling the latest wearable health devices &mdash; glucose monitors, blood pressure trackers, fitness trackers. Probably <em>not<\/em> mentioned at the show is that these gadgets might be creating a massive environmental problem.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It isn&rsquo;t something that tends to get much attention, but a new study from Cornell University and the University of Chicago found that by 2050, demand for health wearables could hit 2 billion units per year, or 42 times more than today. Unless we change how they&rsquo;re made, these devices could generate over a million tons of electronic waste and 100 million tons of carbon dioxide over that same period, the authors warn.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An even bigger surprise is that it&rsquo;s not the plastic that&rsquo;s the problem. The study, published in Nature, found that the printed circuit board &mdash; the device&rsquo;s &ldquo;brain&rdquo; &mdash; accounts for 70% of its carbon footprint, largely due to intensive mining and manufacturing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The researchers suggest two fixes: develop chips using common metals like copper instead of rare minerals like gold, and make devices modular so the circuit board can be reused while the outer covering gets replaced.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wrote one of the study&rsquo;s co-authors, &ldquo;When these devices are deployed at global scale, small design choices add up quickly.&rdquo; It&rsquo;s something to think about while scrolling through CES announcements.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><sub>Wearable health devices could generate a million tons of e-waste by 2050<\/sub><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week in Las Vegas, tech companies at CES 2026 are unveiling the latest wearable health devices &mdash; glucose monitors, blood pressure trackers, fitness trackers. Probably not mentioned at the show is that these gadgets might be creating a massive environmental problem. It isn&rsquo;t something that tends to get much attention, but a new study&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-wrap\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wearable-health-devices-could-generate-a-million-tons-of-e-waste-by-2050\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;Wearable health devices could generate a million tons of e-waste by 2050&rdquo;<\/span> &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13479,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}