Half a billion cheap electrical items go to UK landfills in a year, research finds (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 11 months ago by thehatfox@lemmy.world to c/unitedkingdom@feddit.uk

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[-] tal@lemmy.today 12 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

This included 260m disposable vapes

Material Focus said that when consumers bought a cheap item, they saw it as disposable.

"And so you disposed of the disposable vape? Why did you assume that that was the appropriate way to deal with it?"

"It was an innocent mistake! It could have happened to anyone!"

[-] ojmcelderry@lemmy.one 21 points 11 months ago

Exactly. The fact that "disposable" vapes even exist is mind-boggling. And now they account for more than half of the electrical waste going to landfill. 🤦🏻‍♂️

Why do they even exist? Can't they be banned?

It's like buying a USB battery pack to recharge your phone - and then chucking it out after it's run out.

[-] peter@feddit.uk 11 points 11 months ago

Disposable vapes are actually made in a way where they would be fully reusable if they had a charging port and replacement cartridges available so it's not even anything but pure greed and laziness

[-] hellothere@sh.itjust.works 8 points 11 months ago

It's like buying a USB battery pack to recharge your phone - and then chucking it out after it's run out.

You can actually buy that shit too! They sell them in petrol stations for god only knows what reason.

[-] SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml 3 points 11 months ago

In the UK too?

[-] hellothere@sh.itjust.works 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I'm in the UK, commenting on an article in the UK sub, by a UK newspaper, so, yes 😁

[-] SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml 4 points 11 months ago

Oh, whoops, didn't notice the sub 😳

[-] hellothere@sh.itjust.works 11 points 11 months ago

Disposable vapes - ignoring all other issues with them for a second - shouldn't be going to landfill though. They are electronic waste and should be being dealt with appropriately.

The problem is that it's next to impossible to actually handle WEEE correctly even for occasional purchases like routers, hard drives, laptops, etc, so how on earth disposable vapes are meant to be appropriately disposed of is beyond me.

[-] thehatfox@lemmy.world 12 points 11 months ago

It's far easier for most people to just throw them in the bin though, and the past of least resistance is the one usually followed.

Even then, even if electronic waste handling was more accessible disposable vapes would still be an enormous additional volume of waste that doesn't need to exist in the first place.

[-] Syldon@feddit.uk 6 points 11 months ago

There are a few shops that will now take electronic waste and manage it. I take all my old batteries etc to Currys.

[-] hellothere@sh.itjust.works 3 points 11 months ago

Good to know, thanks!

[-] Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 11 months ago

The problem is that it's next to impossible to actually handle WEEE correctly even for occasional purchases like routers, hard drives, laptops, etc, so how on earth disposable vapes are meant to be appropriately disposed of is beyond me.

In South Wales, we can take anything like that to the local tip for free. Household batteries get put in a separate bag and put out with the recycling.

It wouldn't be worth the trip for one or two vapes, but a bag full wouldn't take a lot of space between trips.

[-] FatLegTed@feddit.uk 3 points 11 months ago

You can do that for most of UK though, loads of places have a container for batteries, most supermarkets certainly do. People cannot be bothered.

[-] Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 11 months ago

Yep, we're on the same page. The person I replied to said that it's really hard to do, so I gave an example of how easy it is where I am 👍

[-] ojmcelderry@lemmy.one 2 points 11 months ago

Ditto for London. I assume most local council recycling facilities accept small electrical waste.

[-] TubeTalkerX@kbin.social 10 points 11 months ago

Wait, there’s no Silicon Heaven?

[-] GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk 7 points 11 months ago

But...Where do all the calculators go?

[-] FatLegTed@feddit.uk 2 points 11 months ago

And what about biros? Have you never wondered where all those biros go?

[-] adaveinthelife@lemmy.ca 10 points 11 months ago

The fact that vape companies seem to make their disposable offerings the only ones with the 'good' experience, while their reusable items are objectively inferior is a crime against environment.

[-] Rogue@feddit.uk 8 points 11 months ago

I'd be interested to know the proportion of people who know how electronic waste can be recycled. And how often the average person visits their local recycling center.

I have dozens of items boxed up in need of disposal but I never find the time to research how, let alone making the journey to a recycling center

[-] fakeman_pretendname@feddit.uk 5 points 11 months ago

I know you can take them to the recycling centre, but I don't have a car, so I just hoard them in a room in my house.

Depending on the item, I sometimes hoard it in a different room, where I can fix it or dismantle it for useful components, if I ever had the time or inclination to do so.

Fortunately though, once a year, our local council does a "put it on the street and we'll take it" day, and they come and collect things and take them to the right place.

[-] tal@lemmy.today 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

We've got U-Haul in the US; one can rent a truck ranging from pickup sized up to tractor-trailer size. If the UK doesn't have U-Haul, they'll have some company that fills the same role.

googles

Yeah, they're in the UK. Checking the prices at a random UK location, it looks like a pickup or cargo van runs $19.95 plus $0.59/kilometer. Though...you'd need to have a driver's license or know someone who does. Hmm. That's not something that comes up much over here, outside of maybe New York City.

[-] fakeman_pretendname@feddit.uk 1 points 11 months ago

Yeah, there's plenty of car and van rental places - but yes, you need a driving licence for it.

Note that I'm probably in the minority not being able to drive - I think almost half of the people I know have cars and licences these days - and that would be a far higher number in a more rural or wealthier area.

[-] SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml 4 points 11 months ago

Mattresses should be recyclable

[-] autotldr@lemmings.world 1 points 11 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Almost half a billion small, cheap electrical everyday items from headphones to handheld fans ended up in landfill in the UK in the past year, according to research.

The not-for-profit organisation Material Focus, which conducted the research, said the scale of the issue was huge and they wanted to encourage more recycling.

This included 260m disposable vapes, 26m cables, 29m LED, solar and decorative lights, 9.8m USB sticks, and 4.8m miniature fans.

Material Focus said that while people were used to the idea of recycling larger electrical items such as fridges, lots of smaller devices were left unused in houses.

In the average UK home, the research found, there were four to five charging cables, two to three mobile phones, and two to three remote controls cluttering up cupboards.

A Material Focus survey of 2,000 people found that every year, the average UK adult buys nine electrical items cheaply and throws away eight.

The original article contains 455 words, the summary contains 153 words. Saved 66%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[-] sadreality@kbin.social -2 points 11 months ago

In have the right to sell shiti plastics items to the poors...

Fuck your planet, boy

this post was submitted on 12 Oct 2023

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