White Paper - London’s electricals and electronics footprint

Executive summary

Electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) underpins every aspect of modern life: from fridges, laptops, and smartphones, to buildings’ heating and air conditioning equipment, we are increasingly reliant on it in all aspects of our lives.

Globally, new electrical and electronic equipment placed on the market each year is anticipated to increase by 32% between 2022 and 2030 to a staggering 82 million tonnes. Yet these products come with significant material and carbon costs. Waste electrical and electronic equipment is one of the fastest growing waste sources globally, and its production and disposal brings with it a suite of health and environmental impacts: from the mining of rare earth minerals needed to manufacture these items, to the fires caused by batteries disposed of in our waste management system.

The research set out in this report provides the first system-wide analysis of London’s electricals and electronics footprint, mapping how these items flow into, through and beyond the capital, as well as quantifying their associated life cycle emissions. It serves as additional evidence to complement ReLondon’s other sectoral footprint reports, and further compounds the call to action for London to transition to a low carbon circular economy. The research also models the likely carbon reduction impacts of three potential levers that could generate environmental, economic and social benefits across the supply chain. 

Key findings

In 2024, London households and London-based businesses and institutions consumed 255,600 tonnes of new electricals and electronics (EEE) and threw away 134,500 tonnes.

• London’s households were responsible for the majority (79%) of London’s electrical and electronic product consumption and also accounted for 80% of the items that were disposed of and became waste.

London’s households are buying more electricals and electronics than they are discarding.

• On average, each London household bought 57.8kg of new electricals and electronics per year (the weight of one fridge-freezer, or almost 115 smartphones) while only disposing of 30.2 kg (the weight of around 10 laptops). The ‘stocks’ of electricals within the average London household are therefore increasing: between 2023 and 2024 they grew by 4.4% reflecting the rise in the consumption of these items.
• There is now an estimated 700kg of electricals in the average London home, and likely to be even more in long-term storage. This growing cache of items not in active use represents an opportunity for reuse and redistribution to bring both economic and social value. Efforts to unlock the value of these through repair and/or reuse could displace the purchase of new products, help tackle appliance poverty and reduce the city’s electricals and electronics footprint.

In 2024, the production and disposal of electricals and electronics used in London households resulted in the generation of 5.93 million tonnes of CO2 e (around 0.65 tonnes CO2 e per person). (NB: this analysis does not include product use phase and the emissions associated with energy consumption to power these items.)

• This is the same amount of CO2 e that is needed to power approximately 2.1 million homes for a year (more than half of London’s households in 2024) even without considering the emissions generated when a product is used (its ‘use phase’). When broadened to include products used by London’s businesses and institutions, this estimate increases to 9.1 million tonnes of CO2 e, the equivalent of powering an additional 1.1 million homes a year (and a total of 3.2 million).
• The majority (92%) of this carbon impact is generated before products even reach the city, caused by the materials extraction and manufacturing of these items. Making better use of London’s existing electricals and electronics through repair, reuse, remanufacturing and effective product management therefore presents an opportunity for reducing London’s footprint.
• London’s electricals and electronics carbon footprint (excluding use phase) falls between other key sectors, with a larger carbon footprint than both the packaging and clothing sectors but lower than the capital’s food system.

Five product categories represent 41.9% of the carbon footprint associated with the production and disposal of household electricals and electronics: small IT equipment, game consoles, flat panel TVs, PV panels and washing machines.

• Despite many of these products being typically small in size, encouraging the repair, reuse and collection of these items could significantly reduce London’s electricals and electronics footprint.

In 2024, an estimated 1.7 kgs of electrical and electronic equipment per household were repaired (equivalent to the weight of one laptop), while 8.1 kgs were reused. Taken together, only 21% of products reaching the end of their first life are repaired and/or reused.

• There is an opportunity to increase the amount of electrical and electronic equipment that is reused and repaired across London. Repair and reuse can have a range of benefits, from lowering the carbon footprint of the sector and supporting households experiencing appliance and digital poverty, to supporting green jobs and skills through the repair and refurbishment sector. And there is an opportunity to generate even more impact in London: even without considering the items sitting unused in homes, redirecting those electrical and electronic items that were thrown away by households despite still being in a reusable and repairable condition could almost triple the amount of items repaired (an increase from 1.7 kgs to 4.8 kgs per household), and see a more than 50% increase in the amount of reuse (growing from 8.1 kgs to 12.4 kgs per household).

Of the 134,500 tonnes of items discarded in London in 2024 (by both households and non-households), 47.5% was disposed of via what can be called ‘formal’ collection routes (such as local authority collections, bring banks and household waste and recycling centres); but a staggering 52.3% (70,700 tonnes) was disposed of via ‘improper’ routes, with 62.3% of this being put into the residual waste and much of the remaining amount being illegally disposed of through fly tipping or illegal exports.

• Increasing formal collection rates is important not just to increase recycling, repair and reuse rates but also to provide a vital source of critical minerals - such as lithium, cobalt and nickel – and to boost supply chain resilience. Unlocking the value of this ‘mine’ of materials in the current stock of London’s electricals and electronics can play an important role in improving the UK’s supply chain resilience and impact.
• Preventing improper disposal can also help avoid battery-related fires in waste management and mitigate other health and safety risks.

Levers to support a lower carbon electricals and electronics supply chain

As part of the mapping of materials and emissions associated with London’s electrical and electronic equipment system, the following report also models three potential levers in order to quantify their likely impact and contribution to London’s transition to a circular, low carbon and more resilient supply chain. These levers are all focused on opportunities for London’s households, which represent 79% of the electrical and electronic products placed on the market in London in 2024. Each lever has been modelled across two scenarios – moderate and ambitious – to highlight where the greatest reductions in emissions could be achieved at different points across the supply chain. The scenarios are for illustrative purposes and have been set in line with a variety of targets, including collection targets, and other existing sources. The first two levers focus on opportunities for reducing the volume of items being thrown away, with the third lever looking at increasing capture of those items currently disposed of incorrectly.

If the sector were to meet the ambitious scenarios against each of the three levers as outlined below, London could reduce its carbon emissions associated with the sector’s supply chain (excluding use phase) by delivering the following actions and impacts:

Lever 1: Increase the reuse of household electricals and electronics to displace new purchases

Impact: By capturing more of those items currently disposed of and diverting those that are in a working and reusable condition, London could reduce the carbon footprint of electricals and electronics (excluding use phase) in London’s households by c.4.7% by preventing the emissions associated with their production.

Lever 2: Increase the repair of household electricals and electronics to extend product lifespans

Impact: By capturing and fixing items that are in a repairable condition but are currently disposed of, London could treble rates of repair, resulting in a c.1.3% reduction in the carbon footprint of electricals and electronics (excluding use phase) in London’s households. NB: some of these avoided emissions associated with the production of new items may be partially offset by embodied emissions associated with new components that would be needed for repair.

Lever 3: Increase formal collection rates for household electricals and electronics to support repair, reuse and critical minerals recovery

Impact: By increasing the share of waste electrical and electronic items disposed of by households via formal routes to 85%, London could reduce the carbon footprint of electricals and electronics (excluding use phase) by c.1.1% when compared with London’s 2024 household baseline. This lever can also play an important role in enabling repair and reuse and increase recycling to provide a local source of critical minerals.

A growing evidence base for action in cities London’s electricals and electronics footprint is the fourth in a series of material flow analyses produced by ReLondon and their partners, with the first being London’s food footprint in 2021, the second being London’s fashion footprint in 2023, and the third being London’s packaging footprint in 2024.

These four reports have each applied similar methodologies to quantify sectors’ material flows and associated carbon emissions in London; and all four reports propose replicable methodologies to enable other cities to measure and tackle their own consumption-based emissions.

As most major cities globally are net consumers of products and materials, the carbon and waste savings potential from tackling that consumption is significant. In addition to tackling those emissions generated directly within city boundaries (territorial emissions), it is vital for cities to address emissions associated with the materials and resources they consume (consumption-based emissions). London’s consumption-based emissions are, for instance, 2.8 times higher than its territorial emissions.

This report presents a practical approach to identify, measure and address electricals and electronic equipment-related waste and carbon hotspots at a city level. It shows the impact cities can have on carbon emissions within their electrical and electronic equipment supply chain through a more circular economy.