Increased Repair Could Cut UK E-Waste by 100,000 TPA : eSpares Survey Calls for More Repairs and Less Waste
A damning new survey has revealed the UK’s worst cities for generating unnecessary e-waste in the form of scrapped household appliances.
Supplied by online spare parts specialist eSpares, the results of the survey have been laid out in a league table which identifies the areas most responsible for Britain’s fastest-growing waste stream.
Newcastle tops the table as Britain’s most wasteful city with 52% of residents suggesting they’d prematurely ‘throw a broken appliance away and buy a brand-new alternative’. Wolverhampton places a close second, with 51% disposing of goods that cause e-waste, while Cambridge rounds off the top three on 50%.
The findings come as it is revealed the UK produces 1.4 million tonnes of e-waste a year, of which 70% is reported as ‘unaccounted for’.
While the research has sent alarm bells ringing, eSpares believes there is an effective solution.
“Headlines are dominated by plastic waste, and e-waste continues to go dangerously unnoticed,” said Ad Casey, head of brand at eSpares. “But this issue can’t be ignored much longer, especially in a society that relies heavily on digital devices and household machines.”
“Estimations show that by repairing just 10% more appliances almost 100,000 tonnes of e-waste could be prevented from being unnecessarily thrown away across the UK, each year,” continued Casey.
“Preventing e-waste is easier than you might think. Hundreds of thousands throw away potentially repairable appliances, from cookers and fridges, to washing machines and vacuum cleaners. When actually, these appliances may just need a simple repair that anyone with basic tools could do,” he concluded.
eSpares added that it offers a free Advice Centre with hundreds of fault fix articles and how to videos that have more than 70 million views so far. With 9,000 appliance manuals and over 1 million spare parts available online, eSpares makes it possible for appliance owners to save the environment and cut e-waste by deciding to #FixFirst.
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