A – ASK
Does your unwanted tech contain batteries or bulbs? Remove these before recycling. It’s your responsibility to remove personal data from smart devices and computers, so remember to take out memory cards and delete your data.
What is FastTech?
Mass-produced, small electrical items that cost as little as £1. And with over 11 million being binned every week, they’re now the world’s fastest-growing type of electrical waste.
The quick guide to FastTech
‘FastTech’ refers to everyday small electricals – from headphones to cables, decorative lights to mini fans and even vapes and LED balloons. These items are cheap and often have a short lifespan. This means it’s easy to see them as ‘disposable’ even when they’re not designed to be. It’s Fast Fashion for the world of technology and, like the clothing industry, FastTech has huge environmental and social impacts.
What’s the problem with FastTech?
The hard reality of ‘bought, then binned’ electricals
FastTech is our fastest-growing type of e-waste
From mini-fans and USB sticks to cheap headphones, decorative lights and portable speakers – we bought 1.14 billion items of FastTech in the UK in the last year, and we binned 11 million of them every week.
Each piece of FastTech binned is resources wasted
All electricals, even small inexpensive items such as cables, contain precious materials – and if we bin them, they’re lost forever. That’s a big challenge for the environment and our economy
FastTech is just the tip of a (very big) iceberg
Last year, half a billion items of FastTech were binned in the UK. It’s time to turn the tide – try these top tips from Professor Cathrine Jansson-Boyd and think before you buy.
But we’re starting to turn the tide
Like anything else with a plug, battery or cable, FastTech can and should be recycled. And more and more people are discovering how easy it is to donate or recycle theirs. Find your nearest drop-off point using our handy locator.
How to slow the FastTech tide
Once you’ve decided whether to recycle or pass on your unwanted FastTech, preparing your electricals is as easy as ABC
B – BAG IT
Find a bag that you can use to store all your old FastTech and electricals. This way you can take them to your local recycling centre in one go or have them ready for collection day.
C – CHECK
Check our easy recycling locator to find your nearest repair, donation or recycling point. Remember, some councils collect small electricals directly from your home.
Electrical recycling locator
WATCH THIS
The world inside your tech
Whether it’s disposable vapes or swanky noise-cancelling headphones – inside all electrical devices are valuable, unseen materials that make them tick.
Now eye-popping 3D scans by visual tech pioneers Lumafield reveal the treasure in our gadgets: copper, lithium, stainless steel, gold and more. By recycling anything with a plug, battery or cable we can recover these materials and turn them into new products – from bicycles to life-saving medical equipment.
What are some examples of FastTech?
Some of the FastTech items most likely to be binned and unused according to our latest research include:
- LED, solar and decorative lights ( 23.9 million)
- Ear buds and headphones ( 14.82million)
- Charging cables ( 20.4 million)
- Rechargeable and non-rechargeable batteries (77.7million)
- Electric toothbrushes ( 6.7 million)
- Electric razors (4.88 million)
In total in the UK, we binned well over half a billion FastTech items in the last year, which could all have been recycled.
With bells on! FastTech is rivalling Fast Fashion as a rapidly growing source of waste and it’s causing similar headaches.
As with Fast Fashion, the small and typically short-lived electricals we’re snapping up in huge numbers are often incredibly cheap. Over 12 million of the FastTech items we bought in the last year cost £1 or less. At this price, it’s easy to see them as ‘disposable’. In fact, over a third of us in the UK say we view FastTech this way, our latest research shows.
But even low-cost electricals have hidden value – they contain precious materials, including aluminium, copper and lithium, which are lost forever if not recycled. These materials can be reclaimed and reused to make new things, like new tech, playgrounds, life-saving medical equipment, electric vehicles and wind turbines.
If we can make recycling or passing on FastTech when we’ve finished with it the norm, we can all help take some of the pressure off our planet. And it’s easier than you might think! That’s where our handy locator comes in. It will help you track down your nearest repair, donation or recycling drop-off point in a jiffy.
- FastTech sales are soaring: In the UK, we bought over a billion FastTech items in the 12 months to March 2025. That’s a total spend on FastTech of £11.6 billion – four times as much as we spent in 2023.
- FastTech waste is growing rapidly: We binned nearly half a billion FastTech items in the UK in the last year – twice as many as we did two years ago. That’s a mind-boggling 11million items thrown away every week, or 19 items a second. This makes FastTech the fastest-growing type of e-waste.
- Novelty FastTech is booming: We’re developing a taste for ‘fad’ FastTech, our latest research shows. In the last year, we bought nearly 8 million light-up toilet seats, mini karaoke machines and LED balloons. We’ve all been tempted by novelty gadgets and gizmos that seemed fun at the time but weighing up whether we’ll use them more than a handful of times is a simple way to put the planet first.
- Unused FastTech is wasted FastTech: Nearly 22 million of the FastTech items we bought in the last year were no longer being used after just a month. When FastTech is consigned to the ‘drawer of doom’ to be forgotten about, it’s also contributing to the e-waste crisis. Better to pass on unwanted tech instead.
- Recycling FastTech is easier than ever before: There are now more than 30,000 locations across the UK where we can drop off anything with a plug, battery or cable for reuse or recycling. With 70% of us in the UK already recycling our small electricals, we need to make sure we’re doing the same for FastTech, too. It’s a small act that’s a big win for the planet.
- Read our full research on FastTech here
Anything with a plug, battery or cable can be donated, repaired or recycled. And with more than 22,000 electrical recycling drop-off points around the UK, finding one near you has never been easier – check our handy online locator for your nearest.
Think about making yourself some money or making someone else happy: donate your unwanted tech to charity, sell it or bag it up and recycle. Whatever you do, don’t throw electricals in the bin or shove them in a cupboard and forget about them.
