Almost half a billion small, cheap electrical everyday items from headphones to handheld fans ended up in landfill in the UK in the past year, according to research.
The not-for-profit organisation Material Focus, which conducted the research, said the scale of the issue was huge and they wanted to encourage more recycling.
More than half a billion cheaply priced electronic goods were bought in the UK in the past year alone – 16 per second. Material Focus findings showed that of these items, 471m were thrown away. This included 260m disposable vapes, 26m cables, 29m LED, solar and decorative lights, 9.8m USB sticks, and 4.8m miniature fans.
Scott Butler, executive director at Material Focus, described it as “fast tech”. He said: “People should think carefully about buying some of the more frivolous … items in the first place.” He said the items people bought were often “cheap and small”, and that consumers may not realise they contain valuable materials that could be salvaged if recycled.
Small electricals can contain precious materials including copper, lithium and stainless steel. These components can be recycled and used in wind turbines, medical devices and electric vehicles. Material Focus said that while people were used to the idea of recycling larger electrical items such as fridges, lots of smaller devices were left unused in houses.
In the average UK home, the research found, there were four to five charging cables, two to three mobile phones, and two to three remote controls cluttering up cupboards.
Butler said: “We want to get the message across that anything with a plug, battery or cable can be recycled and there’s somewhere near you to do it. The scale of the issue is huge, but there’s an easy solution – just as the trend for recycling and repurposing fashion has grown and grown, we want to encourage the nation to recycle fast tech, guilt-free and fuss-free.” Material Focus has created an online tool to guide consumers to nearby recycling points.
Material Focus said that when consumers bought a cheap item, they saw it as disposable. They estimate that UK citizens spent more than £2.8bn on these cheap products in the past year.
The non-profit group described it as “the tip of the iceberg” when it comes to the growing issue of wasted electricals in the UK. More than 100,000 tonnes of waste electricals are thrown away every year, and there are 880m electrical items of all kinds lying unused in UK homes.
A Material Focus survey of 2,000 people found that every year, the average UK adult buys nine electrical items cheaply and throws away eight. Some of the most likely items to be binned include mini speakers, handheld vacuum cleaners and step counters.
