As a tech-hungry world's appetite for electronics grows exponentially, so has its habit of discarding old devices for newer ones.

But where does all this waste end up?

Every year hundreds of thousands of old computers, mobile phones, tablets and a range of other electrical appliances are disposed of unsustainably.

Some are even shipped to less well-off countries in Asia and Africa, exposing scrapyard workers to hazardous chemicals.

According to a recent UN report, 48.5 million tons of electronics are being thrown away, 80 percent of which end up in landfills, making e-waste the fastest growing waste stream.

Annually, it is worth more than $62.5 billion, more than the GDP of most countries. There is 100 times more gold in a ton of e-waste than in a ton of gold ore.

With the rapid innovation in technology and ever-shorter lifespans of the products, electronic waste has led to an environmental crisis of epic proportions.

The search for solutions is on and scientists claim the answer may lie in a plant-based material.

Cellulose polymer is a long-chain molecule consisting of hundreds, or sometimes even thousands, of oxygen, carbon and hydrogen atoms. It is the main substance in the walls of plant cells that helps them to stay rigid.

Also used as the building block of paper, cellulose might just replace the plastic, silicon and glass used to make electronic devices.

Strong, lightweight and renewable, it is fully biodegradable and, once buried in soil, could dissolve in a matter of months.

Efforts have been ongoing for the past three decades to combine "nanocellulose" – the tiniest plant fibers and crystals – with electronics.  

Nanocellulose can be used in ink and printed electronics. Advanced 3-D printing techniques are already being employed to fabricate electronic parts.

Conductive printable ink combined with biodegradable polymer binders can usher in a new era of paper electronics, bringing to an end the global e-waste problem.

Gilberto Siqueira, a researcher at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) says: "Cellulose is a biodegradable natural polymer which can be combined with conductive components to create green electronics.

"In our work, we can add up to 20 percent of nanocellulose in the ink formulation while keeping the ink conductive. This is already a great step to create a greener material, as 20 percent of the ink is composed of biodegradable polymer."

Nevertheless, it could take some time before green electronics join the mainstream as scientists try to overcome several challenges related to durability, fabrication and conductivity.