So the decorations are down, the new calendar is up, and the tree’s off to be recycled. But what’s planned for the old technology we’ve replaced this Christmas?
The Restart Project, a charity working to tackle e-waste, is encouraging people to reconsider where they take their unwanted gadgets, drawing attention to alternatives that are more environmentally friendly than recycling centres. While our Christmas trees are shredded into organic matter that is great for the soil, when electronics enter the recycling stream, it’s a very different story, the team warned.
“The devices will usually be put into huge shredders, which use lots of energy and generally fail to recover many of the precious metals and critical raw materials in our devices – materials we need to power the green energy transition,” explained Fiona Dear, director of The Restart Project.
