‘Fast tech’ warning as demand for cheap gadgets heats-up

Demand for so-called “fast tech” – cheap electronic items often quickly binned or abandoned in drawers – is growing, a not-for-profit that works to reduce electronic waste has warned.

Material Focus singled out heatwave-fuelled demand for battery powered mini-fans as an example of the problem, suggesting over seven million were purchased last year.

Nearly £8m was spent on light-up toilet seats, mini karaoke machines and LED balloons, the group’s calculations also suggested.

Overall, consumer spending on fast tech has quadrupled to £11.6bn since 2023, surveys carried out for Material Focus suggested.

The boom could be as rapid as the growth in fast fashion with a “similar negative impact”, Professor Cathrine Jansson-Boyd wrote in the announcement of the findings.

Although fast tech can cost less than a pound, valuable materials can still be locked up in the cut-price gadgets.

A previous report by Material Focus looking at tech lurking in so-called “drawers of doom” suggested in total the junk could contain over 38,000 tonnes of copper.

The mining of materials used by tech gadgets can be environmentally damaging, and yet, experts say, such elements will be crucial as nations seek to transition to low carbon technologies.

Material Focus, whose board includes trade bodies representing manufacturers of domestic appliances, and lighting manufactures, argued that consumers needed to be more thoughtful,

“We had fast food, then fast fashion, now fast tech”, Scott Butler, the group’s executive director wrote.

He urged consumers to “think before you buy your latest fast tech item, and if you do really need it”.

Unwanted tech should always be recycled, Mr Butler argued. However, surveys carried out for the group suggest that over half of fast tech ends up in the bin or unused.

Joe Iles of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation which promotes the idea of a “circular economy” based on reuse and recycling said the charity believed the problem of fast tech could be fixed.

“It’s easy to think of these patterns of rapid use, disposal as inevitable, but they’re a recent symptom that has accelerated in the past 50 years or so”, he told the BBC.

There was already a booming market for some durable, reused, and refurbished electronics, he added.

And policy tools such as Right to Repair and Extended Producer Responsibility could encourage better design, as well as new practices in collection, repair, and resale, he said.

Others highlight how goods need to be manufactured in a way that helps consumers make sustainable choices.

Laura Burley, plastics campaign lead at Greenpeace UK told the BBC that the combination of plastic and electrical components made fast tech “a toxic cocktail that is very hard to recycle”.

The fact that so much cheap tech is not built to be repaired or to last exacerbated the problem she said.

When plastic and electronic waste is thrown away it often ends up being dumped on poorer countries.

The solution was “a circular economy where producers are responsible for the full life cycle of their products, and incentivised to make them easier to repair”.

Consumers could help by not buying fast tech – “manual fans or an open window work just as well” she noted.