Problems with electrical waste - Recycle Your Electricals

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What are the problems with electrical waste?

We discard 103,000 tonnes of electricals every year, instead of reusing or recycling them. That creates e-waste – and that poses a major threat to the environment and to human health.

Top view of an open cardboard box full of old electrical items against a bright blue background.

Resources

If old electricals go to landfill, or are flytipped instead of being recycled, valuable resources are lost forever. That’s a big problem.

Lumps of molten silver, bronze, and gold melted together on a bright blue background.

Economy

Discarded or hoarded household electricals cost the UK economy £488 million per year of lost valuable raw materials such as gold, copper, aluminium and steel.

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Financial value

The average UK household is hiding away 30 unwanted electricals. If we passed these on to charities they could make a big difference to people’s lives.

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Climate change

Producing electricals creates carbon emissions. Recycling our old electricals would cut as much CO2 as taking 3.8 million cars off the road.

CHEAP AND CHEERFUL?

Is ‘FastTech’ the new Fast Fashion?

‘FastTech’ describes cheap, everyday electricals that often have a short lifespan – meaning they may be seen as disposable even when they’re not.

Almost half a billion FastTech items were thrown away last year, and a shocking 90% of them were discarded soon after being bought. From fairy lights and fans, to handheld vacuums and single-use vapes – inside every one of those products are valuable materials that could have been recovered and reused.

Find out more about ‘FastTech’