“digital dump” Britain

August 5th, 2011

According to recent research by swiftcover.com; over five years Britain has resigned £500 million pounds worth of electrical gadgets to the bin.

Overall since 2006, the British public have spent £1.5 billion pounds on over 300 million gadgets. This works out to an average of six per person, demonstrating the explosion in mobile and handheld technology over the last decade.

With devices being continually upgraded in increasingly short periods; the rate at which phones, mp3 players, televisions and other gadgets get disregarded has dramatically increased. 35 per cent of all gadgets bought in the past five years are no longer being used by the original owner.

The final resting place for 60 percent of gadgets is completely unknown but figures suggest they don’t all end up in the bottom of drawers or in shoeboxes under the bed. 19 percent of brits say they recycle their gadgets while 21 percent say they give their gadgets to friends and family.

There is also a noticeably different approach to unwanted gadgets between men and women. 40 percent of woman hand down or recycle their gadgets while 31 percent of men preferred to sell or discard their gadgets.

All this points to gadgets becoming entrenched in day to day life, but they are increasingly expensive.

Worryingly 29 percent of people who have bought a gadget in the last five years assume their gadgets are covered by contents insurance; which can be the case but not always. This leaves gadget enthusiasts exposed to huge financial costs should they lose or damage their gadgets.

Entry Filed under: Technology, Finances, house and home, insurance, Uncategorized