E-Waste Audit Set to Look at UK’s Approach to Gadget Recycling
Wednesday, March 25, 2020 - 17:13:42
Each year millions of tonnes of old electronics are thrown out across the country, and a new initiative led by the Environmental Audit Committee will seek to work out whether this problem is being dealt with effectively, according to the Environment Journal.
Scrutinising the nation’s approach to recycling old electronics is important because while current levels of turnover in terms of gadget upgrades are high, they are only expected to increase going forwards as more and more devices are made available.
There are already national targets relating to e-waste collection and recycling, although this audit will set out to see whether these are actually adequate in their current form or if it makes sense to push them even further in order to reduce the ecological impact of current consumer habits.
Project spokesperson Philip Dunne explained that it was not just smartphones, laptops and televisions which made up the e-waste issue being faced by the nation at the moment but also every other appliance and device commonplace in domestic and business environments. He argued that because consumers were compelled to upgrade so regularly, the proportion of devices being hoarded, dumped in landfill or discarded in other unsustainable ways was worryingly high.
Dunne went on to say that the UK is still one of the world’s leading nations when it comes to e-waste recycling but that more would need to be done in order to keep this state of affairs in order, as other countries are quickly catching up and will soon overtake Britain if efforts are not redoubled here.
Crucially, it seems that consumers need to be made aware of their options when it comes to mobile phone and gadget recycling, since solutions exist and yet not everyone harnesses them.
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