First system-wide analysis of London’s electrical and electronic equipment traces 255,600 tonnes of new products into the capital and 134,500 tonnes out, with households responsible for 80 per cent of items discarded.
London households are buying almost twice the weight of electrical and electronic equipment they get rid of each year, according to a report published today by ReLondon and the University of Oxford that maps the flow of these products across the capital for the first time.
An average London household buys 57.8kg of new electricals and electronics per year - roughly the weight of a fridge-freezer - but disposes of only 30.2kg. The stock of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) in London homes grew by 4.4 per cent between 2023 and 2024, with an estimated 700kg now in the average household.
Mete Coban, London Deputy Mayor for Environment and Energy and Chair of ReLondon, said: “Londoners are using more electrical items than ever before, from laptops and phones to kettles and air fryers. Too many electrical items are still being thrown away when they could be repaired, reused or recycled. By helping people keep products for longer and recycle them properly, we can cut waste, reduce pollution and create green jobs.”
Across the city, households and businesses consumed 255,600 tonnes of new EEE in 2024 and discarded 134,500 tonnes, with households accounting for 80 per cent of what was thrown away.
Of those 134,500 tonnes, the research found that around a quarter was in a reusable or repairable condition. It highlights that passing these items on could have met close to 10 per cent of London’s total demand for new EEE.
In total, households repaired an estimated 1.7kg per year - roughly the weight of a laptop - while sending 8.1kg to reuse via second-hand marketplaces and refurbishment.
Under the report’s ambitious scenario, capturing repairable and reusable items currently thrown away could almost triple household repair rates to 4.8kg and increase reuse by more than 50 per cent to 12.4kg per household.
Lamia Sbiti, Director of Business and Sector Support at ReLondon, said: “The foundations for a circular future are already here. From the everyday Londoners engaging in repair and redistribution, to London’s growing eco-system of innovators and repairers, the ingredients for change are in place.”
Carbon footprint and collection gaps
Producing and disposing of household EEE in London generated 5.9 million tonnes of CO2e in 2024, excluding the energy consumed during use, equivalent to powering 2.1 million homes for a year. Including businesses and institutions, the figure is 9.1 million tonnes - larger than the capital’s packaging and fashion footprints combined. Production and manufacturing account for 92 per cent of those emissions, which is why the report argues that extending product lifespans through repair and reuse would have a larger effect than improving end-of-life recycling alone.
More than half of what London discarded in 2024 missed formal collection routes. Of the 134,500 tonnes, 52.3 per cent went through non-official routes, with the majority put into residual waste and the remainder lost to fly tipping, co-mingled scrap metal recycling or illegal export.
Prof. Lucia Corsini, Head of the Circular Economy and Sustainability Lab at the University of Oxford, said: “For the first time, the study quantifies first-life and second-life pathways across a diverse range of household and non-household products - everything from a kettle to a washing machine to a solar panel - while also shedding light on informal and improper waste handling and treatment.”
The report is the fourth in a series of material flow analyses by ReLondon, following food (2021), fashion (2023) and packaging (2024), with fieldwork carried out between January 2025 and April 2026.
ReLondon is calling for coordinated action at local, regional and national level, including integrated infrastructure for collection, sorting, repair and redistribution, behaviour change programmes, and product design standards that make devices more repairable and easier to disassemble for material recovery.
Hannah Jameson, Corporate Director for Delivery, Innovation and Climate at London Councils, said: “This report provides a valuable evidence base for understanding how London can reduce waste, recover more value from electricals, and build a more resilient circular economy.”
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