Tackling the UK’s phone e-waste crisis

Mobile phones have become such an all-encompassing part of our lives that many of us would feel lost without ours. They provide indispensable connectivity to all sorts of information and communications, a pocket-sized device that helps us to navigate our everyday lives.

Yet this reliance on mobile phones comes at an increasing cost, with issues ranging from the environmentally damaging extraction of precious raw materials, to consumers being pressured to ‘upgrade’ to the latest version – meaning handsets are frequently replaced. Fewer than 60% of phone users keep or donate their phone when they no longer need it; instead, older handsets are discarded as waste rather than being repaired, refurbished or disassembled and their materials salvaged for reuse.

Our mobile phone problem feeds into an ever-increasing demand for electrical items. This has led to the UK becoming the third largest contributor to e-waste globally, and phone waste is a significant contributor to this. According to Resource Futures’ waste composition data, 11.1 million mobiles were thrown out in 2020 alone (a figure that doesn’t include unused handsets being kept in homes).

When set against the wider context of efforts to reach net zero, this landslide of phone waste must be significantly curtailed over the coming years to bring down e-waste and the carbon footprint involved in the current linear production model.

Understanding the full scope of phone e-waste

WWF-UK wanted to highlight the scale of mobile phone waste and identify how manufacturers, retailers, suppliers and consumers can work together to make the mobile phone sector more circular.

The result is the Fast Phones report – researched and delivered by Resource Futures – which provides a comprehensive assessment of the current situation around a mobile phone’s lifecycle from design and production through to disposal.

The report was drawn from Resource Futures’ research and preliminary findings, combined with its own waste composition data on mobile phone waste. Activities were supported by The Restart Project and input was provided by WWF-UK and Vodafone UK.

Research activities included collecting a representative sample of consumer options in conjunction with Censuswide. Additionally, Resource Futures conducted interviews with stakeholders across the supply chain – from businesses and charities to associations and government bodies – establishing diverse views and insight on the subject that serve to contextualise the findings within the report.

The research identified several hurdles, such as incomplete data on the scale of phone e-waste in the UK, insufficient monitoring of exported e-waste (and ongoing illegal activities around this), as well as growing digital inequality both locally and globally.

Recommendations for circular solutions

The report recommends practical actions to combat these challenges, designed to advance circularity in the sector and achieve net zero goals.

These include establishing safe and convenient ways for consumers to return unwanted phones for refurbishment, reuse, or recycling, as well as improving access to repair and standardising best practices (including a rating system) to ensure that every handset is designed to be reliable and long-lasting.

The report lays out findings that show why placing the burden on consumers is not a feasible (or suitable) solution for combatting mobile phone waste at this stage. Instead, it highlights the need to focus on other points in the supply chain and policy improvements as the best pathways forward.

Several wider industry steps were suggested in this vein: implementing better e-waste regulation, more effective tracking and monitoring of e-waste, and helping customers understand how their electronics consumption habits come with significant environmental impacts.

As well as making a difference in the fight against phone e-waste, these steps would also bring benefits across the wider industry, supporting numerous other electronics supply chains in reduction, refurbishment and reuse efforts.

While there is no quick fix for the problems surrounding mobile phone e-waste, collective action by policymakers, network operators, and industry players can transform the mobile phone sector from a wasteful linear system – turning it into a sustainable, circular model that rapidly reduces the amount of e-waste we create and ensuring materials are kept further up the waste hierarchy for as long as possible.

This report sets out a clear roadmap for achieving these goals, providing an insightful body of research that can inform the creation of future sustainability initiatives and circularity-focused policy in this sector.

You can read the full report here.