In the beautiful Kingdom of Tonga, a new eWaste organisation has been established to deal with the accelerating issue of electronic materials imported into the small 800km-island community, without plans for removal, reports Matangi Tonga Online.

Four researchers from Nankai University (China) and Arizona State University (United States) have published concerning results on electronic waste (ewaste) in developing nations, estimating that developing regions will overtake developed nations by 2016.

The research goes on to indicate that by 2030, 'obselete PCs' will reach an estimated 400-700 million units in developing regions, overtaking developed nations by 200-400 million units.

Last week Samsung announced they had signed up to the Basel Action Network (BAN) e-Stewards program, joining a host of other major US based organisations such as Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Capitol One Financial Corporation.

For over three years the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) has been working on trials and the development of electronic waste programs including Byteback, a consumer and small business recycling program.  And in November 2010 the Federal Government announced the development of a national waste policy.