That box full of wires you’ve kept for years could help avert a looming crisis

The unused cables and broken tech items you have tucked away at home could help steer the UK away from a copper crisis, according to new research.

The research by campaign group Recycle Your Electricals (RYE) suggests the UK has 1.3 billion unused or binned electricals, including 627 million cables, which could hold the answer to the nation’s fast-approaching gap in the supply of copper to meet growing demand.

Copper is a vital resource in the UK’s push to decarbonise the economy, as it’s used to build wind turbines and solar panels, as well as electric vehicles.

The Conservative government committed to a 68% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 with the aim of reaching net zero by 2050, meaning copper demand is soaring.

But additional analysis by Bloomberg Intelligence shows a growing gap between the amount of copper being produced and demand, with all the shallow, easy-to-extract copper deposits having been mined out.

The lack of mining resources mixed with growing demand suggests there will be a 6.5 million tonne gap between supply and demand by 2033, the experts say.

But households across the UK could help significantly reduce this gap, the RYE says, by recycling the cables we are throwing away or keeping tucked away in our so-called “drawers of doom” – whether that’s a box, a bag under the bed, or a pile forgotten about in the loft.

Cables contain 20% copper, according to the Critical Minerals Association – and RYE says households across the UK are throwing away or holding on to an average of 23 cables.

It means UK homes are holding around £266m worth of copper, enough to provide 30% of the copper needed in our green future, RYE says.

“Fess up time everyone – we all have our own stashes of unused or broken electricals,” says RYE executive director Scott Butler.

“But it’s time that we realised the value and power of the silent majority; the hidden treasures inside our homes.

“We need to start ‘urban mining’ and help protect the planet and nature from the harmful impacts of mining for raw materials and instead value and use what we have already.

“People may not realise that cables and electricals contain valuable materials, not just copper, and that if binned or stashed, we lose everything inside of them when we don’t recycle them into something new.

“Anything with a plug, battery or cable can be reused and recycled and there’s somewhere near you to do it.”

The group is urging people to use its recycling locator to find their nearest electrical recycling point.