‘It’s cheap but it’s not disposable’: why fast tech is a growing waste problem.

Technology surrounds us. It has made its way into the daily lives of the vast majority of the inhabitants of this planet, intensifying its presence from year to year, decade to decade. Between phones, computers and other similar personal devices, owning countless electronic devices has become the norm, something fundamental to existing in today's society.

In addition to these kinds of more complex products, however, the world seems to be dotted with fast tech: small and simple objects of a technological nature that are presented as something that can improve the buyer's life, make it easier, but without possessing the quality necessary to be repairable later. Their fate, therefore, is to be thrown away at the first problem, thus feeding the growing phenomenon of tech waste.

According to research conducted by Material Focus, the British organization behind the Recycle Your Electricals campaign, more than 1.14 billion of these small electronic gadgets are purchased each year in the United Kingdom alone, and in the same amount of time, half of them are thrown away. An average of 19 per second.