We wanted to let you in on a technology secret we have discovered! For the past year, EnviroWaste has been keeping track of all of the office tech we’ve collected from London office waste hauls. The idea to compile a list started after we collected seven Samsung laptops from just one site!
It’s no secret that valuable items are thrown away every day, however we thought this list would give us some insight on consumer tech trends.
We discovered that the most discarded items are indeed Samsung laptops, with EnviroWaste collecting 240 from office waste hauls in the last 12 months. The least discarded items are Apple MacBooks, with only 3 being collected in the last year.
The top twenty most discarded technological items are as follows:
- Samsung laptops 240
- HP Fax machine 211
- Toshiba laptops 198
- Logitech webcams 153
- Acer laptops 144
- HP scanners 142
- Binatone telephones 98
- Proaction paper shredders 79
- Canon printers 53
- Assorted franking machines 51
- Phillips Projector 51
- Sony video camera 47
- Microsoft webcam 44
- Epson scanner 43
- Goodmans radio 32
- Samsung smartphone 30
- Acer Chromebook 27
- Seagate hard drive 19
- Blackberry mobile phone 11
- Canon digital camera 5
Any items that could be refurbished or were still in working order were sold on to second hand retailers and the profits from the sale donated to the Wildlife Conservation Network.
James Rubin owner of EnviroWaste said,
“I think our findings are interesting because it reflects the British office’s preference towards technology. Although it’s not surprising that we discarded more out of date items such as webcams, calculators and label makers, I was surprised at just how many Samsung laptops were thrown away. That could be because they’re just the most popular office laptop or it could be that they’re being replaced by better computers.
“I think the general trend in technology is that functions are being combined, for example most laptops will now have an in-built webcam and offices are also making steps to becoming more paperless, which is great, so scanners, label makers and fax machines aren’t used as much. I’m glad about this, and even more thrilled that the majority of the tech haul items we picked up could be sold on instead of being thrown away.”
