WEEE! And there’s a lot of it.
9 million tonnes of “invisible” e-waste (meaning people don’t realise there were electronics inside) is thrown away every year, with an estimated value of $10 million. One third of this in children’s toys.
These toys contribute more to the world’s invisible e-waste than the 844 million spent vapes thrown away each year.
You can help. If your child’s discarded toy had electronics in it, then these will contain rare earth metals, copper and gold and inside the batteries there will be nickel, cobalt, manganese and lithium.
We need to recycle all these elements – and the batteries should be recycled separately since they can be fire risks. Unfortunately electronic waste is not only by far the most valuable waste stream, but it is also the fastest growing.
Globally, only 17% of e-waste was collected and recycled in 2022, though in the EU 55% was officially collected and reported. One reason for this poor performance is that if people do not see an obvious electronic use for something – like if it is a toy – then they don’t later on think of it as electronic waste.
So please recycle discarded toys as WEEE in a Household Recycling Centre any day your local one is open.
Thank you.