A recent study predicts that in 2022, there will be more than five billion phones discarded, which is more than enough to wrap around the equator.

The phones could form a tower 120 times taller than the International Space Station's orbit and an eighth of the way to the Moon if they were placed flat on top of one another. Members of the WEEE conducted research from June to September and discovered that 8,775 families in six nations had an average of 74 electrical products. Among them were toasters, laptops, toasters, electric tools, tablets, phones, and electric tools.

On average, 13 of these 74 items were being hoarded, nine were being left unused, and four were broken. Netherlands, UK, Slovenia, Romania, Portugal, Lebanon, and the European Union were among the nations questioned.

'Small EEE products like cell phones, electric toothbrushes, toasters, and cameras will weigh a projected 24.5 million tonnes in total in 2022, which is four times the weight of the Great Pyramid of Giza. In a press release, Magdalena Charytanowicz of the WEEE Forum, who is in charge of organising International E-Waste Day, notes that these small things make up a sizable amount of the 8% of all e-waste that is dumped into trash bins and ultimately landfilled or cremated.

These gadgets 'provide many significant resources that can be employed in the manufacture of new electronic gadgets or other equipment, including wind turbines, electric car batteries, or solar panels - all critical for the green, digital transition to low-carbon societies.'