The London e-waste hackathon at Kings College London was an eye-opening experience. Collaborating with fellow students to tackle the issue of E-Waste was truly insightful. We delved into the detrimental impact of E-Waste on the environment, particularly in developing nations with illegal dumpsites… This event not only shed light on the environmental challenges posed by E-Waste but also provided a platform for innovation and time management. It was a rewarding experience.
Reddwan Jahir, King's student
04 December 2024
Community, technology, education and more: Sparks fly as students come together to tackle e-waste
Inter-university students developed cutting-edge new strategies to reduce the environmental impacts of electronics
An interdisciplinary range of students came together in November to take part in a hackathon aimed at finding creative and collaborative solutions to electronic waste.
Electronic waste, or e-waste, is currently the fastest growing waste stream across the globe with the majority of electronics thrown away.
This results in valuable – and sometimes harmful – materials such as gold, cobalt and heavy metals ending up in landfill.
Supported by Virgin Media O2 and environmental charities Hubbub and Climate Jams, the hackathon saw around 100 students from 10 Universities competing in mixed teams to develop innovative and inclusive new project ideas to tackle this issue.
Their solutions reflected the interdisciplinary strength of the group, with solutions focusing around education, community-based approaches, developing new technologies, harnessing existing strengths and challenging behaviours.
The winning team, Pod Rescuers, developed a project that targeted a practical solution for lost earbuds such as Apple Airpods, a common – and expensive – issue for both users and producers.
Their solution centred around a recycling method where earbuds lost in public spaces such as train stations could be “collected, sanitised, and resold at lower prices”, decreasing the amount of resources needed to create new ones.
Reddwan Jahir, a King’s student who was part of the winning team, said:
Arthur Shearlaw, Founder of Climate Jams, said:
At Climate Jams we aim to catalyse youth powered solutions to climate change through innovative, collaborative and fun programmes such as Hackathons like these! It was a pleasure to work with the King’s Climate & Sustainability team and Hubbub to put on such a brilliant event, which we hope empowered and inspired the next generation of climate leaders. We loved seeing how students from across London came together to build connections and come up with some brilliant solutions to the growing issue of e-waste! Well done to everyone involved and we are already looking forward to the next one.
Arthur Shearlaw, Founder of Climate Jams
As well as from King’s, students from a range of Universities across London and the Southeast took part; including City University, the University of Greenwich, Imperial College London, Kingston University, London School of Economics, London South Bank University, Queen Mary University, Surrey University and the University of Westminster.
This event was the second in a range of waste-related inter-university hackathons, promoting collaboration and knowledge around sustainability.
Find out more about waste and recycling at King's