Can you believe that in 2022 5.3 billion mobile phones became e-waste across the globe?
While this is hard to fully grasp today, fast forward 100 years in the future and we might look back with complete disbelief. While figures and stats can often be overlooked, Nokia phones bring you the Museum of Unnatural History is a futuristic museum which allows us to visualise just how the future of e-waste may look.
From Weight on the world, a 23.9kg suitcase representing the amount of tech waste the average person creates per year to Handset hoarders, a drawer filled with old, unused tech representative of households hoarding as many as 19 unused handsets, the Nokia phones museum is switching bones with phones, showcasing ways we’re contributing to e-waste, in the same way you would expect to see relics excavated from historical sites today.
Nokia phones bring you the Museum of Unnatural History marks the launch of Circular, a new subscription service that rewards people the longer they keep their phone and takes full responsibility for the whole lifecycle of the device so it doesn’t end up in landfill.
- Fossil Phones
Did you know, glass can take up to 1 million years to decompose? Plastic and aluminium can take anywhere between 200 and 500 years to fully break down. Simply throwing away your old handset would mean these materials, many of which can often be reused, are sitting in the ground as untouched waste, becoming fossils over time.
- All tied up
It was reported that there were a whopping 140 million cables hoarded in UK households, enough to go around the world five times. New research from HMD global, the home of Nokia phones, shows that if we look at mobile phone chargers alone, people in the UK have on average between 3 – 4 sitting at home. If everyone were to get a new charger every time they upgrade their tech, it’s no surprise that this number will continue to contribute to the growing numbers of e-waste in the future.
- Weight of the World
Latest data shows that the average person in the UK produces 23.9kg of e-waste per head, per year. That’s just over the individual standard luggage allowance (23kg) permitted by most airlines. Throwing away old tech rather than finding ways for it to be reused and recycled means this number could increase in the future. Who knows, we may soon get to a point where each person has contributed two suitcases full of e-waste per year?
- Handset Hoarders
On average UK households are hoarding as many as 20 old and unused small electronics. When it comes to mobile phones, new research shows that the average UK household has at least two old and unused phones sitting in drawers at home. How many do you have at home?
- Personal use
The average person in the UK replaces their mobile phone every 3.3 years. Based on the average UK life expectancy in 2022, the average UK adult will go through around 19 mobile phones in their lifetime.
