• Swindon & Wiltshire Experts
• Wednesday February 19 2025
• Author Name: Natalie King-Barnard and Louisa Davison

Old electronics aren’t waste, they’re an opportunity

Save children from e-waste, says e-recycling business

Electronic waste, or e-waste, is the fastest-growing waste stream in the world, growing three times faster than the planet’s population.

We frequently upgrade devices, leaving a trail of obsolete hardware that often contain valuable materials. Digital dumping without proper recycling can have devastating consequences for both people and planet.

Exporting the Problem: A Global Crisis

Shockingly, out of the 75 per cent of e-waste exported overseas half are easily repaired devices.

Developing countries are paid to import e-waste but the funding, knowledge and administration for creating recycling centres and providing safety gear is virtually nonexistent. Without safe extraction of copper, gold, and silver, impoverished and illiterate workers, including children, risk their health and lives to dismantle computers, phones and other e-waste for a meagre income.

Cables and plastics are burned by workers to extract metals, releasing toxic fumes. Every breath taken by these workers comes with an invisible and deadly risk of respiratory problems, neurological damage, and cancer. Biomagnification means that the poison of lead, cadmium, and mercury is in the air, water, food and livestock. Heavy metals remain in the soil for thousands of years and many generations.

At the notorious Ghanaian Agbogbloshie e-waste site (pictured above), founded in 1993, the once lush marshland was found to be more toxic than Chornobyl’s radioactive exclusion zone. 

And ‘artisan’ recycling means that data is not safely deleted, leaving the information on your phone or computer wide open for those up to no good.

And its completely unnecessary.

UK is second biggest exporter per capita of e-waste – and half could be recycled

98 per cent of e-waste can be recycled reponsibly here in the UK, returning devices, minerals and materials back into production.

And given the UK is the second biggest global producer of e-waste per capita, UK businesses have a big responsibility to dispose of it safely.

Despite this producer of e-waste, affordable tech is still needed in the UK where 45 per cent of households with children are below the Minimum Digital Living Standard. Refurbished electronics can supply affordable tech and help the 14 per cent of children here in the UK who don’t have access to a suitable e-learning device.

Why safe e-waste disposal matters

The good news is there are sustainable solutions. E-waste can be recycled through local collection, data securely erased, machines can be repaired or refurbished and minerals safely harvested.

When we dispose of our old devices responsibly, the consequences ripple out far beyond what we can see. For the health of children scavenging through toxic landfill sites to the contamination of entire ecosystems, to mining in fragile environments such as rainforests for fresh minerals, the cost of responsibility seems small in comparison.

Discarded electronics are not waste, they are an opportunity.

Repair and recycle responsibly

No one has to waste their life on e-waste. Repairing and recycling our devices through trusted, certified organisations in the UK reduces the amount of waste sent overseas and creates affordable tech. Every repaired laptop, locally recycled smartphone, or purchase of refurbished equipment adds up to a sustainable future.

Green Machine is an e-waste company who addresses this crisis head-on. Through sustainable, certified recycling services, we fight the devastation of e-waste on people and the planet.

If you have technology going to waste, contact Green Machine for safe and responsible recycling.

This article has been co-written by Green Machine managing director Natalie King-Barnard (pictured below) and Business Biscuit’s Louisa Davison.