The WEEE man, whose head is in the photo on the left illustrates the amount of waste one person will throw away in a lifetime. WEEE stands for Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment. But the WEEE man was made about a decade ago, so if another one was built today, he’d be a lot bigger. An average 21 year old in 2003 would produce 3.3 tonnes of WEEE in their lifetime. But someone born in 2003 would generate nearly three times that amount – 8 tonnes.
Melinda and I are concerned about the amount of electrical waste we all produce, from mobile phones to washing machines or from hair dryers to printers. We’re also worried about what happens to it. A very small proportion of workable equipment is re-used and even the stuff we think is being recycled will often end up on land-fill sites, sometimes on the other side of the world.
