UK households are hoarding 880 million unused gadgets containing almost £1 billion of valuable materials, report finds

Visit any household in Britain and there’s a good chance you’ll discover a ‘dooms drawer’ containing old gadgets, mysterious keys and random screws.

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

Researchers at Material Focus say British households are hoarding 880 million unused gadgets and throwing away 103,000 tonnes of electrical appliances.

According to the experts, the materials in these gadgets are worth a whopping £927 million.

“With the value of the materials in our electrical systems increasing by as much as 180% over the past four years, it has never been more important not to lose that value,” said Scott Butler, executive director at Material Focus.

In their research, Material Focus used publicly available waste data to estimate the amount of electrical appliances being hoarded and thrown away in Britain.

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

Meanwhile, 498,000 tons of electricity were sent to licensed electrical recyclers in 2023, while 103,000 tons were thrown away.

“It appears we are entering an era of hyper-tech purchasing,” Butler said.

‘The amount of electrical appliances we buy and use has increased by more than a third in recent years since 2019, whether it’s the latest kitchen FadTech such as an air fryer, to fitness technology and FastTech.’

‘FastTech’ includes cheap, small electrical devices such as mini fans, charging cables, vapes, earphones and earbuds.

“When electrical equipment breaks or becomes unwanted, too many of them are thrown away or held unused,” Mr Butler continued.

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

“This is a significant missed opportunity.”

Although our everyday gadgets may look simple, they contain several precious materials, many of which are worth a fortune.

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

Meanwhile, hard drives contain precious cobalt and neodymium.

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

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

Based on the findings, Material Focus is urging Brits to search their ‘doomsday drawers’ and recycle any unused gadgets.

“Together we can make 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 electrical appliances by offering more and easily accessible collections for households and shops.’

To find your nearest recycling point, visit Recycle your electricity and enter your zip code.