E-waste

E-waste is the name given to electrical and electronic devices that have been thrown away because they have reached the end of their useful life or are simply no longer wanted. Any item that needs electricity, a battery or a circuit board to work can become e-waste once it is discarded.

It is not just computers

A common assumption is that e-waste means old computers, but the term covers every kind of electrical and electronic product. It is the type of item that makes it e-waste, not its size or its price.

• Kitchen and home items such as kettles, microwaves and smart speakers.
• Personal devices such as phones, tablets, earbuds and games consoles.
• Larger equipment such as televisions, printers and monitors.
• Small accessories such as chargers, cables, remote controls and battery packs.

Small items matter just as much as large ones: a single pair of wireless earbuds is e-waste in exactly the same way as a discarded desktop PC, because both contain circuitry and both have been thrown away.

Two reasons a device becomes e-waste

Devices reach the end of their life in different ways. Some are broken or worn out — a tablet whose battery no longer holds a charge has reached the end of its useful life. Others are no longer wanted while still working — a family buys a bigger television and takes the old one, still working, to the tip.

Worked example: a family clears out a spare room and puts out a cracked monitor, a games console nobody plays any more, a broken kettle and a bag of tangled chargers. Every one of these is e-waste, including the console that still switches on, because e-waste is defined by the item being discarded, not by whether it is faulty.

Either way, the device has been thrown away, so it is e-waste and has to be disposed of somehow.