British households are hoarding 880 million unused gadgets containing nearly £1 billion worth of precious materials, report reveals

• Researchers say that UK households are hoarding 880 million unused gadgets 
• Materials contained inside these gadgets are worth a staggering £927 million

Visit any household across the UK, and it’s likely you’ll discover a ‘drawer of doom’ containing old gadgets, mysterious keys, and random screws.

While most of us don’t think twice about what’s lurking inside, a new report has revealed that we could be sitting on a goldmine of ‘tech treasure.’

Researchers from Material Focus say that UK households are hoarding 880 million unused gadgets and throwing away 103,000 tonnes of electricals.

According to the experts, the materials contained inside these gadgets are worth a staggering £927 million.

‘With the value of the materials that are inside our electricals increasing by up to 180% over the last 4 years it has never been more important to not lose that value,’ said Scott Butler, Executive Director at Material Focus.

Visit any household across the UK, and it’s likely you’ll discover a ‘drawer of doom’ containing old gadgets, mysterious keys, and random screws. While most of us don’t think twice about what’s lurking inside, a new report has revealed that we could be sitting on a goldmine of ‘tech treasure’ (stock image)

When thrown away, smartphones can pollute the environment with mercury, lead, beryllium, arsenic and silica

The precious metals lurking in your old smartphones 

1. Aluminium – 25g
2. Copper – 15g 
3. Silver – 0.34g 
4. Gold – 0.034g
5. Palladium – 0.015g

In their study, Material Focus used publicly available waste data to estimate the amount of electricals being hoarded and thrown away in the UK.

In total, 880 million items are being hoarded in British households – which equates to 30 per household, according to the researchers.

Meanwhile, 498,000 tonnes of electricals were sent to approved electrical recyclers in 2023, while 103,000 tonnes were thrown away.

‘We seem to be venturing into an era of hyper-tech-buying,’ Mr Butler said.

‘The amount of electricals that we buy and use have soared in recent years by over a third since 2019, whether it’s the latest kitchen FadTech such as an air fryer, to fitness tech and to FastTech.’

‘FastTech’ includes cheap, small electricals such as mini-fans, charging cables, vapes, earphones and ear-buds.

‘When electricals break or become unwanted too many of them end up being thrown away or are held onto unused,’ Mr Butler continued.

The nation’s most hoarded electrical item is the mobile phone, and the average one contains around 30 different elements (stock image)

READ MORE: The vast scale of Earth’s e-waste: 62 million tonnes of phones, TVs and vapes were discarded worldwide in 2022

‘This is a significant missed opportunity.’

While our everyday gadgets might look basic, they contain several precious materials – many of which are worth a fortune.

Circuit boards alone contain gold, silver, platinum, palladium, copper, nickel, tantalum, aluminium, tin and zinc.

Meanwhile, hard drives contain precious cobalt and neodymium.

According to Material Focus, the value of several of these materials has increased in recent years.

Since 2019, the price of glass has increased by 151 per cent, while the price of iron has surged by 181 per cent, tin by 33 per cent, and copper by 24 per cent.

Based on the findings, Material Focus is urging Britons to sift through their ‘drawers of doom’ and recycle any unused gadgets.

‘Together we can make some big positive change through individual small actions,’ Mr Butler concluded.

‘We can make it easier for more people to reuse and recycle their old and unwanted electricals by offering more and easy to access household and retailer collections.’

To find your nearest recycling point, visit Recycle Your Electricals and enter your postcode.

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