THE POTENTIAL FOR DEVELOPING URBAN MINES FROM HOUSEHOLD STOCKPILED SMALL WEEE

The Ellen Mac Arthur Foundation (2014) estimated that Cat. 3 Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) / Internet and Communication Technology (ICT) devices such as mobile phones and tablets have reached a 15% collection rate in the European Union (EU). Ongondo and Williams (2011) have calculated that 36.7 million mobile phones were stockpiled by higher education students in the UK, USA, Germany and Australia, representing 1,200 tonnes of strategic and critical materials. More than a billion handsets are shipped each year (Gartner, 2015) and research shows that a large majority is not collected when these devices become WEEE. This uncollected WEEE is rich of strategic and critical materials that could be used to sustain urban mines within a circular economy; yielding supply security and growth in the EU (European Commission, 2014). Also with the recent European Commission withdrawal from the Circular Economy package and the thin margins the waste management industry operates on, significant economic incentives to develop urban-mines are unlikely. A new approach looking at alternate incentive methods need to be implemented in addition to the factors already identified by current behavioural models applied to household recycling.