We need a shift to a system where resources are used again and again

DO you have a “drawer of doom” filled with old gadgets and chargers?

- Daniel Zeichner

It's been estimated that there are enough unused cables in UK homes to go around the world five times along with a hoard of unused electronics.

We seem trapped in a throwaway culture, where it's far easier, quicker and cheaper to replace something on Amazon than get it fixed.

Longer lasting products are undercut by lower quality goods designed for single use or a short lifetime.

Far too often products are made with components that will fail, but are then incapable of being repaired, or can only be fixed by the original manufacturer.

This linear 'take, use, throw' mindset is economically unsustainable, creates mountains of waste that we have to bury or burn and leaves our supply chains exposed.

Less than sixty per cent of waste electricals are collected for reuse or recycling.

Four in five of our plastic products are still made from virgin materials.

Household recycling rates haven't improved in fifteen years.

It's astonishing that UK landfill sites cover an area almost as big as Greater London.

We throw away £22 billion in edible food annually, £4.5 billion in clothes, £2.5 billion in usable furniture.

This is bad for the environment, bad for society and it's bad for the economy.