The £1m Circular Electricals Fund supports ideas to keep electricals – and their materials – in use for longer – through innovation in product design, material recovery and business models. This year we funded 4 circular electricals projects to accelerate the UK’s transition to a more circular electricals economy.
E-waste is the world’s fastest-growing source of waste, with over 100,000 tonnes of electricals binned every year in the UK alone. Our electricals recycling funding has made it easier for over 13.5 million more people to reuse and recycle their electricals, and over 30 million more electricals were recycled last year than the year before. However, despite some brilliant innovation in the electricals sector, many electrical and electronic products and smart devices still aren’t designed to be easily reused or recycled. And we lack the systems to recover all the valuable materials inside them.
We looked for projects working towards practical, scalable solutions that keep electricals and their materials in use for longer. Read about our 4 live projects.
There is no defined, quantified view of the UK’s urban mine yet. The British Geological Survey is mapping the critical minerals inside the motors and magnets in everyday UK electricals like vacuum cleaners to model what’s available, where it is, and how to get it back into the economy.
Find out more about BGS
Bristol Braille is making their Canute 360 more sustainable — a full-page digital Braille display designed to be modular, fixable by its users, and made with locally sourced materials and workforce. Circular design and social impact working together.
Find out more about Bristol Braille
Like organ donation for electronics, Reconome’s AI-powered system will identify whether a device is repairable or ready to be stripped for parts to give life to another. An opportunity to rapidly scale smart device refurbishment for both environmental and social impact.
Find out more about Reconome
Almost all of us own a washing machine, most of us believe in repair, and yet 69% of washing machines that are sent for recycling are technically fixable. This presents a huge opportunity. As experts in circular economy design, UCL set out to find out what’s stopping repair, and how to increase it.
Read about the findingsNew research from UCL, commissioned by us, explores why 40% of people replace their washing machine without considering repair first, and what we can do to make repair easier. The Big Repair Project found that 69% of washing machines that are thrown away could technically be repaired.
