What's the environmental impact of your electronics and how can you cut it? - quiz

Can you guess how many electronic or electrical items the average person purchases in the UK? Photograph: Ben Curtis/AP

1. 

   In the last year, how many electronic or electrical items did the average person purchase in the UK?

   1. 3

   2. 4.5

   3. 6

   4. 8.5

2. 

   What are the key barriers that prevent products from being re-used?

   1. Desire to buy new

   2. Data security concerns

   3. Quality of secondhand products

   4. All of the above

3. 

   Which of these retailers can you take your used mobile phone to?

   1. Currys PC World

   2. Oxfam

   3. Carphone Warehouse

   4. All of the above

4. 

   IT research company Gartner forecasts that 8.4bn connected "things" will be in use this year. By 2020, how many sensors are predicted to be active?

   1. 20.4bn

   2. 35bn

   3. 10bn

   4. 100bn

5. 

   What percentage of new mobile phones that are purchased in the UK are replacing those that are still functional?

   1. 23%

   2. 33%

   3. 38%

   4. 48%

6. 

   UK electronic and electrical product retailers lose £1.5bn in revenue each year because of returns. What’s the main reason people say they return things?

   1. The product was faulty

   2. The product wasn’t as advertised or expected

   3. They didn’t like it after all

   4. They had problems setting it up

7. 

   Which company has filed a patent for a self-healing phone display?

   1. Samsung

   2. Apple

   3. Motorola

   4. Research in Motion

8. 

   iFixit has given a score out of 10 on the repairability of smartphones, 10 being the easiest. Which of these phones is the only one to have received a 10?

   1. Apple iPhone 3Gs, 2009

   2. Fairphone 2, 2015

   3. Motorola Droid Bionic, 2011

   4. LG G5, 2016

9. 

   What new method are scientists working on to more efficiently recover printed circuit boards (PCBs) from electronics?

   1. Using cryogenics

   2. Using a mixture of cow faeces and liquid nitrogen

   3. Using extreme heat of up to 800C

   4. All of the above

10. 

    According to the Restart Project, the average mobile phone produces 35kg of carbon emissions during manufacture. This is equal to:

    1. Doing laundry for 16 weeks

    2. Driving a car at 50mph for 102 hours

    3. Taking a return flight from London to Los Angeles

    4. Leaving the lights on in a four bedroom house for 5 years.

Solutions

1:B - Two million tonnes of electricals and electronics are purchased in the UK each year and around a quarter still end up in the residual waste bin., 2:D - Barriers towards secondhand purchase range from a desire to buy new to concerns around data privacy or the quality of used products. New research by WRAP found that two thirds of customers are concerned about personal data on devices they’ve used and over half of those customers would be discouraged from disposing data-bearing items for that reason., 3:D - In addition to properly recycling phones, Currys PC World and Dixons Carphone offer credit for qualifying handsets while Oxfam gives you the option of donating the value of your phone to them., 4:A - Increased connectivity can help businesses track their resource flows but it’s important that electronics recycling keeps pace with evolving technologies., 5:D - For laptops, this figure is 19%, 38% for TVs and 19% for refrigerators. If the functional products we’re replacing were all re-used, 2,700 tonnes of embodied CO2e could be saved each year., 6:A - 57% of people said a faulty product was most often the cause of a return although WRAP’s research with retailers reveals “much lower fault rates”. They’re working with brands and retailers to improve user guidance, which is a key factor in preventing returns., 7:C - Patent application cites a “shape memory polymer” in the design, intended to partly reverse damage when the phone is exposed to heat., 8:B - According to iFixit’s website, Fairphone’s modular design means the battery and screen can be replaced quickly with no tools, a standard screwdriver can be used to remove smaller modules and disassembly instructions are printed right on the phone., 9:A - Scientists have developed a cryo-mill that pulverises PCBs from smartphones and computer mice into nano-dust., 10:A - Reusing, recycling and exploring new ways to use your electronics for longer can help to reduce emissions and resource use, and can save you money.

Scores