The WEEE Forum, which organises today’s International E-Waste Day, has conducted a survey of 8,775 European households across Portugal, Netherlands, Italy, Romania, Slovenia, and the UK.
It found that the average household contains 74 e-products such as phones, tablets, laptops, electric tools, hair dryers, toasters and other appliances (excluding lamps).
But despite the valuable resources held in the electronics, including gold, copper, silver, palladium and other recyclable components, experts expect a majority will disappear into drawers or cupboards or be tossed into waste bins bound for landfills.
Pascal Leroy, director general of the WEEE Forum, said: “We focused this year on small e-waste items because it is very easy for them to accumulate unused and unnoticed in households, or to be tossed into the ordinary garbage bin.
“People tend not to realise that all these seemingly insignificant items have a lot of value, and together at a global level...
