UK households have been urged to rescue tech items to stave off a looming copper crisis.
Campaign group Recycle Your Electricals said there were more than 800 million unused bits of kit in homes across the country.
The total value of copper in these items and those sent to landfill could be as high as £266 million, the body added.
Recycle your Electricals said its research showed that 38,449 tonnes of the metal were hidden inside unwanted and thrown away electricals – enough to fulfil the UK tech industry’s annual demand.
The body pointed to analysis predicting a 6.5 million tonne global shortage in copper supply within a decade.
Recycle Your Electricals is calling on households, councils, shops, schools and community projects across the UK to collectively recycle 1 million cables.
Scott Butler, executive director of the campaign group, said: “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.”
