E-waste 'drawers of doom' growing, say campaigners | BBC News
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- Опубликовано: 27 мар 2024
- Household hoards of unused electricals and broken tech are growing, a recycling campaign group has warned.
Material Focus has estimated that people have gone from stockpiling an average of 20 items to 30 within four years.
Its findings come from market research. The top ten products include remote controls, mobile phones and hairdryers.
The UN has reported that electronic waste is rising five times faster than documented recycling.
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Stuff being purposely made not to last has been going on since the mid 90s at least.
way before that manufacturers got together in the 50's and worked it out stop making stuff to last or we go out of business
@@apocalypticweasel9078 Yeah of course, but I'd say it got a lot worse from the 90s onwards.
Even a "Challenge" brand desk fan I had from about 2003 was a lot better made than the version from 11 years later.
Well yeah its called profit
So Chinese made
@@stratocasterblue it’s not as simple as that
Anyone else seen that stupid advert with the cat telling you "don't bin your electricals, recycle your electricals" then telling you to look up your nearest place, rather than the council providing a separate bin
Some years. Possibility 15 or so Warwickshire County Council placed a few bins for recycling of electrical items in each town. The bins were emptied once a month. Unfortunately they kept being broken into. The perps took what they wanted left a lot of mess lying around. This led to complaints so they removed them.
Can't be assed to walk anywhere?
You have that MUCH to throw away regularly? And you don't see the over consumerism as the problem? You just want that extra bin? My daily phone is from 2016.
@@davecooper3238that’s because the materials within many products is valuable. Much more than the fraction of a penny each aluminium can or plastic bottle is worth.
That’s why many shops, as well as being legally required to, will happily take back stuff for recycling. It’s free money for them. Even if only worth 50p scrap.
@@salibaba Unfortunately around were I live shops aren’t only to happy to take things back. I am told distance affects how keen they are.
Also they are charged if they take stuff to the recycling centres.
Old tech is going up in value, don’t let them rob you, I regret throwing out all my old stuff that would be worth money now
I've been forced to sell or throw out a lot of stuff of that nature because I was housed in a home with no storage space, unlike the flats of a similar design just down the road which are slightly larger and have _massive_ cupboards in them. It's always interested me how the LGBT households on our estate (We have several here) are all housed in the much smaller flats, and I suspect there's an inappropriate prejudice in how the housing allocations have been done. 🤔
Either way; I've made a record of the stuff I've had to dispose of against my better judgement, and tabulating that as an account receivable against my landlord ever since I moved in. They owe me a ton of money/goods returnable already. 💰
If the calculator, phone or radio still work, why would you suggest we throw them out? A box of cables doesn't take up much room and will prove valuable. You need power supplies of all voltages and polarities.
This
And those cables were expensive. We were conned into buying them because most devices are sold with cables that are exactly the wrong length to reach a plug socket. Or we needed them to fix connections between two devices that should reasonably work well together. Also, I keep old computers with the last versions of software that *I've already paid for* yet some delusional parasite thinks I should be willing to pay 11.99 a month for a subscription.
I have 4 boxes of computer cables, external cables, power cables and transformers. When it comes to cables they seem to be made intentionally to not be reusable. For example a 10 pin RJ on one and USB on another for APC UPS. Sometimes strange adapters for RCA video become useful for connecting sound equipment.
For a computer I still have diskette cables with nice branding on them.
Power supplies "charging cables" have a lot of variation: volts, amps, regulated or not, surprise polarity. You need a big selection.
Would you like my carrier bag of cables then 😂 I've hung on to them for years, like you say, having paid for them thinking that they might come in useful one day. Not yet....and everything has it's own fitting. I absolutely hate the waste but even buying a more expensive anything means you just get the same cheap rubbish.its our fault, most people choose by price: food, clothes, electronics, washing machines. Now sensible people who were brought up to know that buying cheap meant buying twice, can't buy anything decent anymore, even from once respectable brands. The economy of scale just doesn't work for quality anymore. The power is in our hands to start refusing to buy things that don't have a guarantee of a decent life.
Yes, I reuse so much old stuff.
... some of those old Walkmans are actually quite valuable.
Yes, give me all your old gameboys, vinyl players, cassette tape players, old video consoles, old CRT TVs, I‘ll take all of it. Totally normal behaviour.
They wish, you "own nothing and be happy about it"
We're literally living in a world predicted in the film "They Live", except it's not hidden anymore.
Government channels blatantly telling you. "Don't hold on to old stuff, keep buy new things, keep spending money, obey, conform, consume. WE WANT YOUR TAX MONEY.
Companies make these Electronic Devices in a way that they are meant to be replaced in a few years tops so that we can but new and buy more so that the chain of consumerisms and money making doesn't stop LOL
Blame the companies that produce the planned obsolescence goods to keep the money coming in. But is isn't really their fault, its the financial system. Another example of capitalism vs the environment
Maybe I don't want to recycle my phone as these phone companys charge enough money. If u want my stuff. Pay me a good amount for it. Other wise unlucky
So the point is not to try to use Electronic Devices longer but to recycle them so that we can make more and buy more LOL what great logic
A neighbour threw out an old workstation PC. Nothinf too powerful but the PC was made in Germany at least the case its a Fujitsu! So I took it, cleaned her up and installed Linux Mint on it. Resuing is always better than recycling.
As an electronics assembler I find it troubling that on many occasions it's just the battery or a single thing that is broken while most of it is still working.
But some devices are made so it's difficult to repair it so it's not worth the amount of time invested in it. Luckily EU changes are coming regarding for example phone batteries.
Scavenging for components is something one could do, but nobody really wants to hoard electronic components in their home. Instead I think it would be best if recycling centers had a some sort of volunteer repair business, where you could bring old devices, scavenge them and learn how to use those components for something new. That way you could learn something in exhange, for bringing your devices and maybe next time you will have the knowledge to repair it yourself.
My dad still has jars of screws, nothing's changed! xD
Just remember you will own nothing and be happy 😂
Sounds good. Things often end up as a burden. Or even something leading to purchase regrets.
Don't worry, be happy.
you think you own things but mostly things own you - your time and your energy
This is just a ploy to stop people owning more things.
@@defendandprotect-om5hv rofl
It isnt waste its a valuable metals i keep. They know most people are unaware.
We are generating electronic waste?
NO it is the industry building in the redundancy through upgrades and
new fashion gizmos which is generating electronic waste.
The problem is recycling centres are doing their best to keep people away to stop them recycling. They have gustapo on the gates, they wont allow vans and those who do get in find staff to treat people with utter contempt. So is it any wonder that people hold onto electronics.
Check with you local Council website. Most will collect small electrical items, batteries etc if left out with the recycling bin.
Well maybe there should be a law that all items with batteries must be user replaceable... that would cut down on e-waste!
Hell yes.
The EU is in the process of bringing in a law that will stop phones, tablets, laptops etc being sold without a user replaceable battery.
There is a whole new community of retro gamers now.
I have an old Xbox 360 and it's perfectly usable, there are plenty of games out there to use on it.
I also have an Amiga 500 which I upgraded to use memory sticks.
I used my old iMac to recover some media which dates back to the 1990s, which will go into a university archive.
Oh and the BBC has a big Dr Who archive because people didn't recycle that old tech.
Unfortunately most early 360s are uneconomical to repair (chip issue). I've heard of issues with PS3s now also. Some of which are due to Sony pushing updates and bricking working consoles with bad wifi chips. The older stuff (80's) seems to be easier to keep going. Sad to see so much getting dumped.
Year 2024. The year in history when all smartphone chargers plugs were changed from micro-USB-B to USB-C.
How can they call my drawer of cool stuff 'e-waste'?
That’s how many people see it.
Yea but if you’re keeping the e waste inside then at least it’s not in a landfill leaking e juices on the ground
it will end up on a landfill eventually
You could recycle it though
@@Ay2xy if you put it there otherwise lock it away
@@user-ds8rj2vc4v not everything is recyclable some plastic is to plastic to recycle again and again
An important question is just how much of our combined waste is being recycled by our local authorities ? I recall an article as recently as a year ago that in my area it was approximately 2%. It's hardly surprising that people don't bother to play their part if that number is common across the Country.
I can't stand seeing people throw out some of these old electronics that will soon disappear forever. Many are collectible or easy fixes (belts have to be the easiest fix) and yet people just chuck it out. If you take care of older stuff, it will last you for decades still, unlike most things sold today.
It’s also probably the fact that we pay so much for them and don’t want to throw that money away. The money is already gone but the perceived value is there.
Should be made mandatory for all manufacturers to recycle electronics themselves when returned by the customers. That responsibility should be on them.
'We are all guilty of'??
'Everybody has'
Not me, i like sorting out waste for recycling.
yeah think that's a figure of speech
good for you tho, seriously, but sadly personal responsibility isn't gonna fix the problem on a global scale
@@underarmbowlingincidentof1981 i've lived in now very rich countries which have had extreme poverty within living memory and the result is very good recycling services with lots of licenced 'rag n bone men' collecting items on set days, basicly everything gets broken down into its possible resources and that creates labor for people too.
I know a family who collect 1 tonne of aluminium cans every year litter picking to suppliment their vacation. I think more people should give amateur scrap collecting a try.
Good for you, do you want a recycled medal for that? 🙄
@@288theabe no, i want street cred and favors from hippy chicks
Well if ALL countries around the world proactively allowed the "right to repair" law for broken electronic devices that could be repaired, reused or re-purposed, would reduce land-fill.
Old things were better made and worked better.
Fight for the right to repair, all manufactures should provide plans, make tools available, and provide the information needed to right new software for the device.
I reuse and repair a lot of old stuff. That Sony My First Walkman would fetch quite a bit on eBay.
Thanks to industries and commercialism
It's not waste it's history, people are smart and know the first Mac will be worth £1mill in 100y
Why would I throw out my connectors? I have everything in separate x-large freezer bags. HDMI cables in one, Displayport in another. Very easy to look through, no mass of tangles wires. Even bought a label maker so I can label my power adapters. Ended up with so many HDMI cables that I did purge some. Now if only I would look on those 20 to 120 gig hard drives with my multipurpose USB to hard drive adapter.
The responsibility partially lies with consumers as well. I’d rather pay extra and have something durable, whereas a lot of people opt for cheap sh*t that easily breaks.
I do my research, even before buying something small like a fan or torch. Most of the stuff I buy lasts me ages. Check the reviews, thoroughly. That is easier done online than when sizing something up that caught your eye in a high street store.
100% the manufacturers fault for building in faults or self destucting chips into their products to fail after a certain time, non replaceable batteries or removing support for their operating system. They do this intentionally so you have to buy the newest model. This should be against the law.
Called 'designed to fail'.
@@greenbow7888 Aka "Planned Obsolescence"
I refuse to buy products from a brand that implements this dishonest business model. Crapple is one of them.
Why can’t there be a Universal USB charging cable? People would only need one. This would cut down on so much electronic garbage!
The problem is the the manufacturers themselves, forcing us to constantly buy new products. There should be a buy-back or discount trade in System. That way it's win win for All.
I remember when you'd get paid for scrap at the scrapyard.
Then everyone got trained to give it away for free.
When I do my big spring clean I plan to sort all my old electronics out and take them to the tip for recycling. Problem is in Bristol you need to provide proof of address - not ideal when your bills are included in your rent and you do everything online. Thankfully my mums area doesn't have such red tape so we will take all our stuff to her local tip.
A maintained bycycle can with repair last a hundred years... FACT.
Make planned obsolescense a criminal act.
A type of crime against humanity.
Not me, I still use an Ipod Video I bought second hand in 2006, works perfectly.
none going on about that fan that could have easily been fixed with some super glue...
Westminster needs to provide dedicated funding for share and repair schemes. Wales is providing them in every town and village while people in England rely on initiatives in Wales and Scotland to provide guidance.
Westminster also needs to pull its finger out on right to repair and standardisation. Mobile phones are notorious for preventing people repairing them, toasters notorious for twisted metal rather than screws.
One of the worst for lack of standardisation is ebikes.
Like all 'waste' this article blames the customer for forced obsolescence. We have seen the same with litter where the industry blamed the citizen to ward off over packaging regulations (Keep Britain Tidy and the crying Indian advert in the US).
We see it everywhere, fast fashion, overpackaging, single use packaging in fast food chains even when people eat in, forced obsolescence, lack of standardisation. Even worse is the use of modern slavery in the pursuit of profits.
Few companies are prosecuted for any of these odious practices. 'Oh, but look at this person's drawer'.
The only dodgy drawers full of waste sit in the boardrooms while people want action.
I replaced my dslr camera because rubber parts were no more sold by Canon, now it's also the rubber band of my Garmin eTrex GPS that's breaking down, not weatherproof anymore, I could find some parts in China on Aliexpress but it's going to cost me half the price I paid 10 years ago for the device itself (2nd hand)!
My 8 years old Samsung X-Cover was nice, but Android is not updating (for years), I wasn't able to install some apps, so I bought the latest version but it's even slower despite much more CPU and RAM!!! Everything is becoming so complex, not always progressing...
Just seen the Henery hoover go by at the end. Mine blew up yesterday and its £60 to get fixed if its only the circute board but anything else its cheaper to buy new. Well I need new hose so the cose has swung towards a new one. Such shame as I had that for 10years.
Electronic waste contains more gold than many gold mines !
dont throw away old game consoles it makes me cry
It's Companies not Us...
It is actually us for supporting the companies…. 🤦♂️
same as everything you wouldn't have the same underpants for years 😂same shoes etc lol because remember people used to repair both of those items
Drawer? I have 2 rooms, an attic, a garage, a small workshop and a shed.
I blame manufacturers that make products that can’t be serviced, Apple started it with phones that are sealed & other manufacturers followed them. They did it with other devices & other manufacturers follow, their laptops, ipad etc. etc. mean you can’t just change a battery these days. 😡
I have the problem with our local tip/ recycling center is by appointment only and you have to register a car for it and only can make 2 appointments per week, it's booked up constantly and i don't drive or have a car. It's so stupid it has increased fly tipping and people just put things in the bins for binmen to take to the landfill instead of recycling
Perhaps worth checking you Council website. Many Councils will take small electrical if let out with the recycle bin.
-- Don't blame me. Why the governments allow companies to make things with *Planned Obsolescence* in it?
I doubt BBC will follow this up with an examination on manufactured obsolescence. You know, the thing that sompanies do that stops us from having products that last longer.
The BBC like Al Jazeera look into many thighs that commercial stations don’t. Possibly because businesses don’t want it looked into.
The copper is worth keeping. Stop policing peoples precious metals,
Early 2020 it was nice to find an electric burr coffee grinder purposely built to be repairable, either by the owner, or the company. Made in Taiwan, not PRC which was a nice bonus too.
How do mm we.set up recycling for E.waste
Maybe if local councils didn't keep removing recycle points or charging to skip things it wouldn't be such a problem.
I still use the XBox 360. Guess it's time for an update!
Yup. Guilty. Just did mine. Couldn't believe how much I had.
NOTHING against whats coming, unused old EV cars. You haven’t seen anything yet.
They don't recycle the batteries... too expensive!
@@DR_1_1 you can’t recycle a chemical reaction.
@@Cryaboutmyhandle
Yet we read of these batteries ending up in home brew power walls.
There again lithium ion cells are known to self ignite.
For all we know entire housing estates are razed to the ground on account of self exploding batteries.
Obviously secret authorities, known only to themselves, are tasked by public authorities to keep a lid on the thousands of burnt out buildings.
If the press did get wind of a blaze then it's a "gas explosion" even in all electric suburbs.
I kid you not.
That's recycling for you.
@@t1n4444well you have the answer in your reply, use the old batterys for power stations as fuel 👍 filtering system applyed etc
so 🤔 cheap old evs batterys failure usely brought up and new batterys fitted 👍👍🤔
Once a year my area has erecycling. You drive up in your car and they take the stuff.
Sales and marketing cut close to blatant lying about products no doubt adds alot of waste!
No industry is allowed without recycling its waste. Or any idea with out knowing its dangers.
That creates alot of job opertunities.
that 3310 is NOT a ewaste
Games console controllers are easy and cost effective to repair FYI
Phones are easy to avoid hoarding, ideally once you get your new phone, try trade in your old phone as soon as you get your new one. Saves you having to store it somewhere...
My 1st Mac. 1996 would not run System 10 so it had to go.
I don't get why the report suggests that it would be a problem with people collecting more and more old electronics at home. First of all, there is more then enough to recycle and we can deal with that amount first and not encourage people to empty their drawers with old electronics. Secondly, the problem obviously is with the rules in place and the poor level of recycling that is done even with electronics sent by people to right places. And to say "the producers should step it up" is just bullshit, as if they would do anything by their own will! It has to be an even playfield for companies, that is the issue, and the laws has to set it. Not some companies hoping that it will go hand in hand with their business needs.
Planned obsolescence is the problem caused by big business. if it stayed working for more than two years, I wouldn’t be throwing it out.
Didn't the EU have a law for that? WEE Directive, and no, I'm not taking the p"ss
haven't seen McVeigh for a long time
It's fine, stop trying to worry people. We're perfectly able to manage our lives.
The trouble is that recycling items like this is very labour-intensive. I don't mind ripping stuff apart before I dispose of it, so that the constituent parts can be recycled - but then there needs to be proper facilities to take those parts to. Also, not everyone has the tools or knowledge of how to take apart and sort electronic waste, and not everyone can be bothered.
Retailers are accepting electronic waste, but I think - if not already - manufacturers should be charged a levy per item to pay towards the cost of disassembling and sorting the items at the end of their useful lives, and that such effort should be matched by the government.
Also just wiping the device can be a pain, especially if it no longer boots up
wasn't there charity's gathering old tech for export to country's that needed few years ago??
And you can't tell if a USB type C cable is useable or not.😮
I just don't know what the hell to with them all. You obviously can't put them in the general rubbish but the country I live in isn't exactly clear on how to get rid of them. I'm most bothered by dead batteries. And dead electric toothbrushes.
Take a look at U.K. Council website. In most counties it’s a case of put batteries & small electrical items beside the recycling bin & they will take them away.
@@davecooper3238 Yeah, I'm in Chile. Not as organised here.
The sunk cost fallacy plays a huge part in this. People don't want to throw out something that cost them money, even though it's absolute junk.
Sell them better items, they will keep them and instead of breaking, they will last longer. I test all my USB cables and keep the ones worth it, I have a desktop charger that I have been using for years for most of my devices. Once device, a handful of cables and it's still going strong.
Now if companies would quit giving me crap cables with their devices I would have less to throw out.
I feel like Tim Hurkin should get a credit for those stop motion shots.
When I'm bored I just unscrew my electronics and separate all I can. In my country we have containers for all different material and for electronics too. It makes me feel better for environment, helps to concentrate, I learn something. I challenge you to try yourself.
Like hell I would do that. I know that PS4 contoller has a stick drift problem and could have been fix very easy. And just because you don't need a cord now does not mean you are not going to need that cord down the road.
May be worth saving if it’s the now more or less world standard cord. Not so much so if it isn’t.
I still have my VHS player!!
Don't warn me, I'm not the billionaire making money on it.
Phone upgrades are the worst, very incremental changes in terms of specs and yet we fall for it each year. Try repairing.
I would not even know were to start repairing any software.
The Phoebus Cartel and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race.
The problem with tech, such as mobile phones and PCs is they become functionally obsolete before they break. I have a smart phone that uses 3G but next year I may as well bin it because 3G will be gone and the minimum then will be a 4G phone and so the bar gets lifted over time. If I go for 4G how long before that is discontinued in favour of 5G ?
So even if the tech is repairable that does not mitigate against the manufacturers baking in obsolescence.
I'd rather pile it up in the garden than face the recycling centres , they have become complete shit holes . no wonder there is so much fly tipping going on.
If the UN thinks we have a lot of electrical waste now, wait til all those EV cars need their batteries replacing!😅
Yep. The potential for recycling many EV batteries is why people are already investing in factories to do the job.
Where I live in the US the only hope to recycle anything is one big box electronics store 70 miles from here. They are very limited on what they will take AND often charge me to recycle them(and I don't mean a small fee I mean $50 to recycle a small monitor). SO yeah I try to recycle when I am heading down to that city but a lot of it just piles up here.
church or equivalent community gathering in old tech for local charity's or just given to people without etc
@@JonDow-ow2fc Oh I do that if the item still works. The dead stuff is the problem.
@@myrany8407 lol ever heard of spares or repairs etc luk it 👆
@@myrany8407 just put it on social media 👍free
haha I just bought a calculator like that! Which I use along with all my old phones which the battery still last long than my new phone and its a Nokia N70
Boy, you have *NO* idea. I have a veritable THRONG of electronic props from a decade of building L.E.D. sound and light projects (most of which were "sword or saber" type devices). In addition to that, there's the custom DV and KR costumes with vocal amplification and voice modulation. And it's tough to remember just how many thousands of people I entertained, taught, inspired, etc. with all of it. :) Now... it's just--heheh--"space junk", LOL!
Hands off my spare cables !
Eyy that’s a Subaru remote controlled car in the thumbnail. I’ll have it if that will help ;)
So its taken people all of this time to realise this??
Well the issue is. Much like plastics and other typical "recyclables" my concern is my old tech will not be recycled in this country but instead sent to Malaysia or Turkey to be destroyed in a fire or worse dumped into ocean.
give other people your old electronics, instead of shredding them in recyclers
i would pay for multiple items within that "junk", including the cellphones, walkmans,laptops,etc. why did they say that the xbox 360 is junk and "has been long replaced"?
i have risked getting caught to be able to take electronics from recycling bins. on another note, be safe and always wipe your data! i have found laptops vunerabilities and been able to get past their passcodes to see someones entire life on there!
Well I avoid this by using things forever. Typing this on my 2015 iPhone and it’s been a pleasure not slavishly upgrading
Big businesses dont care. They simply want us to keep on buying.
Plus, aww poor Henry, putting on a brave face. 3:33 x
I call this stuff "techno-jumble" and it's a _complete waste of space!_
put it on social media free non working etc 👍
Planned obsolescence. Culpability lies 90% with big tech & 10% with the consumer
Make sure the batteries are thrown away