Recycle it all, no matter how small!
The title says it all: no matter the size of an electrical or electronic appliance, it’s never too small for recycling! Because whether it’s a hoover, a blender, an electric toothbrush or the mini torch on your key ring – they all contain valuable raw materials that can be recycled.
Are you among those in Switzerland who feel that recycling small electrical or electronic appliances, like heart rate monitors, alarm clocks and toothbrushes, is not worthwhile because you believe it doesn’t really benefit the environment? You’re not alone. In a survey conducted by the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland in 2021, 79 per cent of respondents believed that small appliances only contain small amounts of recyclable materials and that the environmental damage caused by incorrect disposal is small. But this is far from true, as the following four facts show:
Fact 1: Even small appliances can cause major damage
Small appliances often have batteries or rechargeable batteries that contain harmful heavy metals. Even if only small quantities of such metals end up in the environment, they can endanger the health of both people and animals. Lithium batteries are also highly flammable and can ignite if damaged, leading to fires.
Fact 2: Even small appliances are valuable
The proportion of recyclable materials such as aluminium, copper and plastic is around 72 per cent on average in each appliance. This is an impressive statistic that demonstrates the value of recycling even small appliances. Ideally, these recovered raw materials can be reused for the production of new appliances.
Fact 3: We help to close the material loop with every appliance
Reprocessing valuable materials means fewer primary raw materials need to be mined. This benefits the environment in three ways: not only are fewer raw materials needed, but less energy is also required to recover the raw materials.
Fact 4: Small appliances are catching up with big ones through sheer volume
Small appliances contain far smaller amounts of recyclable materials than large ones. This is understandable if you compare the size of a heart rate monitor with an oven. However, as smaller appliances are increasingly coming onto the market (through miniaturisation) and these small appliances are often replaced more frequently, the associated material quantities are increasing year after year. In 2023, SENS eRecycling collected 32,000 tonnes of small household appliances and
37,000 tonnes of large appliances – so the race to catch up completely is most definitely on!
What does miniaturisation actually mean?
It’s a positive development in principle: electronic appliances are becoming smaller and smaller, meaning that fewer and fewer resources are required to produce an individual appliance. However, as the number of small electrical or electronic appliances is increasing rapidly worldwide, and many of the small electrical or electronic appliances are not recognised as such and therefore end up as waste instead of being recycled, the waste of resources continues to be immense. According to UN estimates, 24.5 million tonnes of small electronic waste was generated worldwide in 2022 alone – four times the weight of the Great Pyramid of Giza. In Switzerland, the average amount of electrical and electronic waste per capita is 15 kilograms per year.