By the end of 2022, globally, we will have sent 5.3 billion mobile phones to landfill this year alone, according to the international Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Forum.
we will have sent 5.3 billion
mobile phones to landfill this year alone
This is because many of us throw our old phones away when we no longer want them, or we keep them in a drawer until they end up with the same fate. To be more sustainable we must all change this pattern and opt to recycle our old phones instead.
Many of our phones contain natural resources such as gold, silver and copper, that can be reused in another product. Being able to reuse these resources means that they do not have to be sourced from somewhere else, which causes its own environmental problems. Such as deforestation, mining and processing, which causes land, air and water pollution, as well as releasing large amounts of greenhouse gases.
In order to help reduce the number of phones that end up in landfill, initiatives need to be carried out across the UK, including setting up collection points, as well as send back and pick up schemes from the companies themselves.
Each year, International E-waste Day falls on the 14th of October. The day was created to educate people on the effects e-waste has on climate change and how best to stop our electronics from becoming waste.
