I counted every gadget in my home for Earth Day — and the results surprised me

I’ve never felt the need to own the latest tech. In fact, I was still using an iPhone 7 when I joined TechRadar in 2023, because I never really bought into the upgrade cycle (honestly, you probably don’t need a new phone every one to two years).

That changed quickly (perks of the job), but my general approach hasn’t. I still try to keep my personal tech to a minimum — well, as much as that’s possible when you write about gadgets for a living. Admittedly, my idea of ‘minimal’ probably isn’t the same as most people’s, though, so a bit of context helps.

Looking at the UN Trade and Development data (referenced by Staista), the average person owned 9.4 devices in Western Europe and 13 in the US in 2023. Those figures have likely climbed since then, but even a conservative estimate would put them closer to 11 and 16 today, respectively.

That makes me feel a whole lot better about myself because my current tally of tech (not including accessories like a MagSafe charger and portable mouse) is 17. That includes larger tech appliances like my robovac and coffee machine, but not devices I use that aren’t technically mine, like my work MacBook Pro 16-inch and partner’s Xbox Series X.

Tallying my unused tech that I keep thinking I’ll use again

On top of that, I’ve also got a growing pile of gadgets tucked away in drawers and cupboards. From a thrifted Cambridge Audio amp and speakers to my trusty Canon DSLR (which I refuse to part with), this collection has quietly built up over the 12 years I’ve lived in London.

Not counting my old Nintendo 64 and iPod Classic stored back home, I found 11 unused gadgets, which roughly equate to a new device almost every year. That’s actually right in line with a survey by musicMagpie, which found UK households have up to 11 unused devices lying around.

And yes, I did use all of them at some point. There was the brief phase when I thought I’d become a travel vlogger and bought a DJI Osmo Plus, and the phase when I purchased the Instax Mini Link 2 to save money on photo prints. Like most tech, they made sense at the time, but have since been abandoned.

For whatever reason, whether it’s a new law that restricts drones weighing over 250g or simply a much-needed upgrade, I’ve deserted these once-loved gadgets — and I know I’m not alone. MPB, an online marketplace for used camera gear, found that there’s more than £1 trillion worth of unused tech in UK, EU, and US homes.

All the ways I considered responsibly getting rid of my unused tech

Armed with my box of gadgets to go, I set about looking into the best ways to finally get rid of my overload of gear that I’d been hanging onto because I might one day use it again. Of course, it’s not as simple as throwing it in the bin, especially because e-waste contains harmful materials. Despite this, according to the Geneva Environment Network, only around 20% is properly recycled globally.

As a first port of call, I started by looking into resale and trade-in options — hey, with trade tariffs and a RAM chip crunch driving up the cost of tech, it makes sense to jump on the secondhand market, right? But with most of my devices over five years old, their value had dropped significantly. Quotes from resale platforms and trade-in programs like Swappa, Amazon Trade-In, and BackMarket were minimal and often insufficient to justify the effort.

Outside of repurposing the old tech, that left two realistic options: pass them on to someone who’ll actually use them or recycle them properly. Thankfully, recycling has become easier in the UK thanks to new rules that require large retailers to offer free drop-off points for small electronics and to collect larger appliances, making it far more convenient than visiting your local waste collection center.

Off the back of these new circular-economy recycling rules, manufacturers have also launched more recycling and trade-in programs in the past year. The most recent was Insta360 in the US, which is also accepting gear from other brands like DJI, but there are also other big names like Samsung. It’s worthwhile checking with a brand directly, as many have partnered with third-party businesses like Recommerce to launch or scale their trade-in programs.

If there’s one thing I learned from this whole experience, it’s that maybe the smartest upgrade you’ll make this year isn’t a new gadget. Instead, it’s finally letting go of the ones we don’t use, and while Earth Day might feel like the right moment to do it, this is a habit worth keeping all year round.

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