Two words are central to the issue of throwaway culture. Planned obsolescence. During the mid-late 20th century, brand advertising focused on products being made to last- focussed on durability and quality. An example of this would be Tuppaware’s lifetime guarantee- often leading to tupperware being passed down like a priceless family heirloom. Perhaps it would be considered so in today’s society where plastic containers seem more single-use than helpful long-term storage solutions. Marketing now seems to focus on the fear of missing out on the next new thing. A good example being phone brands encouraging people to buy their latest models by refusing to update their older ones- effectively forcing people to ditch their old technology as its usefulness runs out- but where does it all end up?

One place is obvious- landfill or fly tipped on uk soil. According to Keep Britain Tidy (2026) ‘The UK generates around 6 million tonnes of e-waste every year and is the second biggest global producer of e-waste per capita. And just 30% of this waste is recycled.’ More shockingly, BAN (2024) found illegal waste centres in the UK are shipping e-waste to developing countries like Nigeria and Pakistan where they are unsafely dismantled for parts- in particular for finite resources like copper. The good news? The Basel Convention has been working with The Environment Agency to shut down illegal waste centres and establish more robust processes for e-waste recycling.

There are many ways to prevent the volume of e-waste we produce. One of these is pushing for the right to repair. Our repair cafe tackles a large quantity of broken household electricals and has a repair rate of 50%. One of the main reasons for an unsuccessful repair is that the item may be unopenable- either glued together or contains lots of hidden screws with no instructions to help dismantle it. The data suggests that Kenwood, Tefal, Henry and Dualit are the most repairable household brands- often including part guarantees with readily available replacements. https://www.repaircafe.org/en/ is an organisation that collects data from repair cafes all over the world to track repairability and create repair guides for over 80,000 different products. Before buying your next appliance- consider using them to establish the best item for repairability, helping you save money on replacements and save the planet from e-waste toxins. Visit the Repair Cafe in SPARKS Bristol (on every Sunday) to learn more about repair and pick up some of your own skills, tips and tricks!

Charlie Keenan, Repair Manager October 2026