Low-cost and quickly discarded products are playing a key role in worldās fastest-growing waste problem ā electronics
It is cheap, often poorly made, and usually ends up in the bin or buried among the other knick-knacks, takeaway menus and birthday candles in the kitchen drawer.
Known as āfast-techā, these low-cost electronics are increasingly common ā from mini-fans and electric toothbrushes, to portable chargers and LED toilet seats, often bought for just a few pounds online.
But behind the bargain price is a growing problem: many of these items are difficult to repair, not recycled and quickly discarded. Electronic waste is one of the worldās fastest-growing waste streams, and experts say fast tech is playing an increasingly significant role.
In the UK, it is estimated that more than 1.14bn of these small electronic gadgets (including vapes) are bought a year and about half (589m) are disposed of in that same time, which is equivalent to 19 a second, according to Material Focus, the organisation behind the Recycle Your Electricals campaign.
āWeāve had fast food, weāve had fast fashion, and weāre now in the age of fast tech,ā says Scott Butler, the executive director of Material Focus. āWeāre not moralist against technology, but what we are concerned about is the volume of low-quality, cheap, flimsy products that are flooding the market, which end up binned or unused.ā
Fast tech is seen as disposable by more than a third of Britons, according to a survey, and this is, in part, due to the low price point, Butler says. ā[It] might be cheap but itās not disposable. In fact, anything with a plug, battery or cable should never be binned. Theyāre full of useful metals and can be used again,ā he adds.
Butler highlights āfadā fast tech as a key issue ā cheap items that are bought at certain times of year or for particular occasions, such as mini-fans as the UK warms up or light-up Christmas jumpers. About 7.1m mini-fans were bought in the UK last year and more than 3.5m have already been discarded or forgotten in drawers in that same period.
āWe just had a heatwave. Iām sure the sale of mini-fans has boomed during that period. Thereās nothing wrong in trying to keep yourself cool, but we urge people, if you do need those things, try to buy the best version of it that you can so that it has a much better chance of lasting more than a summer,ā he said.
Laura Young, an environmental scientist and campaigner, says fast tech represents a new kind of environmental threat ā not just because of the potentially toxic chemicals many contain, but because of the sheer volume and disposability.
āWe have never had throwaway technology like this before,ā she says. āAnd I think people maybe just genuinely donāt realise that there are electronic components inside of a lot of these tiny devices.
And while it is unlikely the amount of fast tech on the market will decline any time soon, Butler says it is crucial to change how we think about it. āUltimately these things are sold because people buy them. If people didnāt buy them, then obviously they wouldnāt be on the market.
āJust be a bit more mindful about what you buy, how you use it, and what you do with it when you no longer need it. Never bin it when it no longer works,ā he says, urging people to instead collect their electricals andĀ find their nearest recycling point using the locator online.
There is also a push for better repair, reuse and borrowing options. Young points to community initiatives such as repair cafes and tool libraries that allow people to borrow items, often for a fraction of the cost of buying it new.
āIām signed up to a tool library. I donāt buy DIY equipment any more.ā Tackling fast tech requires āthinking differentlyā, she says, and not thinking āI have to own everythingā or making unnecessary impulse purchases.
