There’s more recycling of e-waste, car parts, clothing and more than ever. Makes sense, plus it can often create jobs, especially when refurbishing electrical items like tablets, smartphones or other electronic gadgets. But one stumbling block can be insurance, for both the refurbishing workshops, and the retailers who sell the upcycled items. It’s a problem the insurance sector needs to resolve, says Gavin Miller, CEO at Asurion Europe.
Today, most people are environmentally aware, doing their bit to help mitigate unnecessary pollution. But when it comes to electronic waste – where electronic goods are replaced prematurely or discarded without going through appropriate disposal channels – the picture is not so positive. It’s the fastest growing waste stream globally and the UK is nearly bottom of the international performance class.
Both consumers and businesses discard perfectly good smartphones, tablets or laptops because they don’t realise that help is at hand with insurance policies for accidental damage and maintenance plans to improve device performance. These can extend a device’s life, save money and help lower the environmental impact of replacement.
From the insurance industry’s point of view, this is one of those moments where a social good can be delivered, led by tech protection products that extend device life, while also increasing premium revenues and introducing further products likely to increase customer loyalty.
Throwaway culture
In 2021, the UK produced 36,681 tonnes of electrical and electronic waste, an increase of nearly 98% since 2008. With the UK generating an estimated 23.9kg of e-waste per person, this ranks as the second highest amount in the world, preceded only by Norway. At this rate, some sources estimate the UK could be generating 55,000 tonnes of e-waste by 2030. There has never been a more acute time for raising awareness of the circular economy, encouraging the reduction of e-waste, reuse of electronics and responsible recycling.
Top of the unused electrical items list in UK homes is the mobile phone: accounting for a higher volume than laptops, monitors, TVs, radios and DVD players. Additionally, studies show that for every three items discarded, UK consumers buy four new ones. Staying up to date is definitely a driving factor: in one survey, 67% of consumers said they had replaced a mobile phone that was still in good working order, with 44% wanting the most recent features and software on their smart other devices.
Here, age is a driver: according to a YouGov survey, while 70% of British smartphone owners replace their phone within four years, and 28% buy one every one to two years, 40% of the 18-24 year-old group replace their smart phones within two years. The perception that electronic equipment is ‘broken’ because its functionality has slowed down or its screen is broken is common; investigating the problem is dismissed because of anxiety about being without a phone and lack of instant information about where to seek help to extend device life.
The full picture
If more people understood the true impact – both environmentally and financially – of frequently changing their mobile phones and other devices, they would think twice. It is estimated that 93kg of CO2 is produced during the average life of a smartphone; given that the number of “unique” mobile users reached 5.56 billion in April 2023, this footprint is not insignificant.
This is an opportunity for the insurance industry to get involved with the consumer devices on which we are all increasingly reliant. Professional repairs on a one-off basis – at an average of £170 for official repair of a broken screen and £43 for replacement batteries – can seem too expensive. Compared to insurance costs, where one provider quotes between £48 and £144 per year with varying excesses, the route to repairing without device insurance may be prohibitive and not economic in the short-term.
Investing in device insurance and home tech support covering multiple devices can extend a product’s lifetime by repairing faults or damage, improving functionality, updating apps and enhancing performance speed. Insurance and service products which comprehensively cover device maintenance, installation, optimisation, repair and trade-in options can therefore help customers to maintain their tech correctly and reduce the impact on the environment.
Recent analysis from Asurion shows that the average UK consumer could save over £400 by investing in support cover and extending the lifespan of their smartphone, tablet or laptop by just one more year – then trading in at the end of that year. The total saving across the UK population is over £18.8 billion, the equivalent of the government’s home energy efficiency boosting grant. This also reduces the carbon footprint of manufacturing replacement devices by an average of 99kg of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent) per person. This is over 4.5 million tonnes of CO2e across the UK – equivalent to 0.9% of the UK’s total greenhouse gas emissions.
Towards a brighter future
Despite the current somewhat gloomy stats on e-waste, there are already some signs of trend reversal. Higher costs of living have led people to adopt more economic strategies: one study shows the average replacement cycle in North America and Europe now stands at 30% and 24% (24 and 40 months) longer than in 2016, respectively. And in August 2022, one network provider registered a 24% increase in traded-in items over the previous six months – a 72% increase since the previous year. Over half those customers said they were trying to make their money go further.
As such, if ‘waste not, want not’ rather than an environmental conscience is the main driver for reducing e-waste, then so be it. Just as fashion and vehicle purchases are moving towards a more sustainable economy, so too, we hope, will electronics. Of course, joined up thinking and incentives from government trade bodies, tech manufacturers and distributors, mobile networks and the insurance industries remain essential in lowering the barriers to successful e-waste management.
Be the first to comment