South Africa generates over 400 kilotonnes of e-waste annually.

Most of us sit with several electronic items taking up space, languishing in drawers and boxes. They might be broken, considered too old to give away, or still contain our data. Throwing them in the trash seems wasteful and is, in fact, illegal.

Take this problem, amplify it by millions, and you start to see the scale of e-waste, or Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), a category that includes electronic equipment such as phones and laptops, but also vapes, kettles, stoves, lamps, and lights. The average person generates between 6kg and 8kg of electronic waste annually, according to the UN Global E-waste Monitor. E-waste is currently the least recycled waste stream, growing three times faster than any other waste stream. South Africa generates over 514 kilotonnes of e-waste annually, of which only between 4% and 12% is recycled. The rest goes into landfills, where it causes serious pollution and we lose the opportunity to harvest valuable materials.