This year’s International E-Waste Day, on 14 October, focused on what organiser the WEEE Forum calls “fast tech”. These are cheap, short-lived electronics such as earphones, charging cables, single-use vapes and electronic toys, which are bought, used briefly and thrown away, much like fast fashion.

A European study commissioned by the WEEE Forum from Bellgarde Scientific Consulting shows the scale of the problem. In the UK alone, around 16 such items are bought every second. Of the buyers surveyed, 58% used their fast-tech items for six months or less, and 39% were done with them within a month. Only 32% of items went on to recycling or reuse, while 27% were thrown away and 16% were left lying around at home.

Habits are the biggest obstacle. Some 59% of users said they would replace these items with more fast tech rather than pay more for durable products. WEEE Forum director general Pascal Leroy called fast tech the sector’s blind spot, because people often don’t think of these products as electronics, even though they contain valuable and hazardous materials. The forum also warned that discarded batteries are causing fires at recycling sites, with more than a third of operators reporting one in the past year.

For the refurbishment sector, the campaign is a reminder that the circular economy needs more than one approach. Phones, laptops and tablets can be tested, repaired and resold. Low-cost accessories, by contrast, are designed with little thought for a second life. Encouraging people to buy durable, repairable products in the first place, and to return what they no longer use, may decide how much of Europe’s electronics can be kept in use at all.