Fast tech, big waste
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- Discussion keeps the world turning. - This is Roundtable. - From fast tech's instant upgrades to disposable gadgets, innovation never slows. Yet every new release adds to the crushing weight of e-waste. As consumers binge on convenience and digital clout, the real question isn't just who's to blame, but who's responsible for the fallout. Should buyers resist the hype?

Should brands curb planned obsolescence? Or is it fast tech itself that's the problem? We'll chat about it. We're live from Beijing. This is Roundtable. I'm Steve. Thanks very much for being with us today. For today's show, I'm joined by Ngo Hung Lin and Yuxin. First on the program.

From the pocket-sized portable fans, do you have one? I want one, but I don't have one yet. From that to the latest smart home gadgets, fast tech is all around us, and it's revolutionizing our lives at lightning speed. It delivers instant upgrades, addictive convenience, and the thrill of the next big thing. But...

Behind that shiny surface lurks a dark reality, a tidal wave of e-waste. Discarded devices pile up faster than ever, straining ecosystems and recycling systems alike. And as the cycle accelerates, who should foot the bill for the waste left behind? Manufacturers pushing endless upgrades? Are they to blame? Or what about us? We're the ones who are hungry for the latest trends. We are in the era of fast tech, but the question is,

Can we afford it? Good afternoon, Yehong Lin and Yushan. Are we all guilty of falling victim? Can we say victim to the fast tech trends? Definitely. I have too many of the devices. I cannot wait to share some of my examples. They're weird, they're fun, and they're useless. And I absolutely have one, and the one that you really want. One.

The electric little fan. I have three of those. Three? Three. And they're different. I'll explain. Well, let's get into it. Let's start maybe with a quick definition. When we're talking about fast tech, what is it we're talking about exactly? Yeah, these are the kind of small home appliances and characterized by their low cost, often designed to be mini appliances.

exquisite and portable, aligning with a mini-economy trend that appeals to younger consumers, students, and urban dwellers seeking convenience and also personalized designs. And these products typically offer simple or single-purpose functionalities and are sometimes poorly made, flimsy, and not built for repair or longevity. That means that's just

you know, one-time use kind of thing. And, you know, something like portable electric fans that we mentioned or mini rice cookers, washing machines, mini washing machines. Oh, yeah, right. That's probably only for your underwear. I have one of those too. Do you really? Yes. What do you put...

Okay, sorry. Finish your point and then we'll come back to some of these products. Yeah, and they are particularly favored by some of the young people and single individuals who seek space-saving solutions while also retaining full functionality.

Yeah, and that's a good point, right? Because with, for example, the mini washing machine, it obviously does not take up as much space as your traditional washing machine does. In fact, I believe they sit on a countertop. Do they not? They do sit on a countertop and you can even fold them and put them back inside.

in a tiny little corner beside your normal size washing machine. - Yeah, so when I was out shopping, I saw one of these things and I thought, oh, my first reaction was, ooh, cool. Maybe I could have one of these. And then I looked at the size of the, what do you call it? - You know how small it is? - The drum, and I looked inside and I thought, can I put like one towel in there? How much can you actually wash at one time? - Six underwear.

That's very specific and unexpected. And also one or two little clothes of my three-year-old baby. That's how many clothes you can put in. Because if you put in too many pieces of clothes or the kind of material, for example, a towel, because a towel, one, it absorbs enough water. It can be very heavy.

And it will interfere the function of that small washing machine. So you have to be very specific. And also for regular washing machines, you have a tube to get the water in and release the water out after washing. You can still have that for these smaller washing machines. It's just that you have to

assemble them and disassemble them every single time. If you like the easy to store function, you can fold it and make it smaller when you store it. So there are many functions or many traits of these things, but these kind of different functionalities come with more, let's say, active

active action from the side of those who are using it. - Yeah, it's not as easy to, it's not as user friendly. - As you imagine. - But they can satisfy your specific needs of separating different types of clothes.

I bought a mini rice cooker. It costs about 120, 130 yuan. And I thought, oh, this is really great because my wife and I don't eat rice, number one, that often, or number two, in large quantities when we do eat it. Yeah.

120 yuan is about, I don't know, $20 maybe, $18, something like that. It didn't last very long. The pot got all misshapen somehow, and I don't even know how that happened. The rice would stick to the bottom. What? Yeah. To be fair, I think...

I think with 120 yuan, you can actually get a quite decent one here in China. And mine is also not that expensive. So maybe this is a bad example. I mean, a bad accident. No, it's not. Because finally, one day later or a week later, I plugged it in and the power was gone.

What? Yeah. And then what did I do with it? I didn't know what to do with it. And we ended up just throwing it away. Now, that's a bad thing, but we're going to get to that a little bit later. But this trend, it just reflects a shift, doesn't it? In all of these little examples that we're talking about, these fast tech options, they're rational, they're practical, they're cost effective, right? We're talking about things like the washing machines.

the rice cookers, but we're also talking about cheap earbuds, right? You can find those in a lot of different types of shops, desk fans, phone chargers, fitness trackers even fall into this, right? Because fitness trackers will often get outdated by the next season's model. LED novelty lights like Christmas lights or seasonal lights that you end up using once or twice.

Cheap Bluetooth speakers would fall into this category as well. And like you said, Yushin, they're not really built to last. The flimsy materials, the non-replaceable batteries, that's such a bad thing that we get stuck into, right? So there's lots to talk about here. What is going on with the trend in the industry? Is it doing quite well?

Yeah, and it's quite popular to be honest. This fast tech industry highlighted by this portable small fans and compact home appliances is seeing booming growth in international markets. One example is that BBC reported that nearly 8 million euro was spent on light up toilet seats, mini karaoke machines and LED balls or balloons.

and overall consumer spending on Fast Hack has quadrupled to 11, more than 11 billion euros. - 11 billion pounds I think it is. - Oh yeah. - Yes, and when we talk about

these fast tech applying household appliances, there are essentially two types. One is like Yushun mentioned to cater to the needs of a very specific group of consumer, like the really, really small washing machine. Maybe it's because I want to classify or categorize my clothing when I wash them. Maybe it's because I don't have enough space to

you have a normal size washing machine I want a smaller one or even maybe I want to go on a business trip and bring my own washing machine sometimes that happens yes it happens sometimes is that convenient enough to put in your luggage yes it's kind of like

the foldable cup that you use sometimes because it's with the silicon kind of material and it's the same thing. You just make it a bit bigger and install the swirling part in it. It's a tiny little washing machine already. So you can do that.

So that's one type. And another type is that some of these household appliances are so strange and weird. And at that moment of the advertisement, when you're receiving the advertisement, you feel like I have to have it. Coming back to my three different types of portable little fan. So the first one is a one that I can...

It's relatively bigger. I think it's around 30 centimeter, the edge or the width. The width, yes. It's 30 centimeter by 30 centimeter. So it's relatively large. The thing is I can charge it so I can move it everywhere, which means when I cook in a kitchen, which is quite hot and it's hard for the air conditioners,

coolness to get into the kitchen, I can take my little fan and I do not have to plug it because you can charge it. So that's the first one. And the second one is a one that I can hand around my neck, which means when I'm FaceTiming someone, when I'm doing live streams with my phone, I do not need my hand to handle the fan anymore. It's just by

by the side of my neck and not only can't because I can adjust the angle of the fan there are two little fans hanging around my neck one can be blowing at me another can be helping my phone to cool down wow

I've never heard of that kind of function. You should be careful. You could prepare for liftoff at any point by the sounds of things. And the third one is even weirder because there is tiny little metal in the center of the fan, and it claims that it can cool down the wind it blows out. I just have to try.

It's kind of like a little air conditioner, but I do not understand the logic, but I find it something weird and I need to know whether or not it works. So the marketing behind these products is obviously good enough to convince people that they not just want to have it, they need it.

to have it. Those numbers, Yuxin, that you gave were from the UK. What about here in China? Successful market in terms of fast tech in the UK. Something similar or something different here in China? It is quite different in recent years, to be honest. The domestic Chinese market for small, often these kind of design-driven home appliances is facing a slowdown.

One example is that Xiaoxiong Electrics, that's one of the domestic brands that is producing a lot of these small home appliances. Its latest financial report shows that the total, its revenue declined by more than 5% in the first three quarters of 2024, with net profit dropping over 42%. Despite modest revenue growth, another brand is called Beiding Shares.

also saw its profits fall and also key shopping events like Double Eleven. Double Eleven is one of the big shopping days of the year. Absolutely. And even though during this kind of event...

the sales saw these slip from top rankings with consumers showing less enthusiasm and more products appearing on second-hand resale platforms. And at the same time, people are demanding more because here in the Chinese market, consumers want...

things to be smarter. They want things to be healthier. For instance, when we buy a chopping board, it used to be something quite easy. Have a board, have a knife, and you cook. That's it.

Now they demand a better material, making sure that even if you wash it just like you wash it, you used to wash it, it's cleaner because of the material is anti-bacteria. And also the knife and the board comes with a case and the case have the function of ultraviolet ray or ultrasonic to

clean everything to get rid of the germs right there. You do not need to do anything. So these trends are happening here in the Chinese market. Essentially, my feeling is that the producers are getting better at making this stuff. And when the option is there, consumers started to demand more. And which is why the used to be popular kind of household appliances are getting less popular because they're just not good enough.

Not good enough in terms of quality or not good enough meaning the consumer is not finding enough reasons to use it on a consistent basis. At least both. Both. A little bit of both. Or I would say people are just getting so used to a lot of and different types of mini home appliances.

and now they have new demands and they want advanced versions of a lot of these home appliances. And that is why we're seeing, of course, like a couple of years ago, like five years ago,

These home appliances are super popular in Chinese market. But now maybe we're seeing the trend of going down because people want more, people want better. And they already have some. So unless you give them a good enough reason to replace the old ones. So yes, I think it's because it has been popular for too long.

I'm wondering if there's a bit of market saturation happening here, because when I go on to the shopping apps here in China, if you search a product, right, let's just use the fan, the handheld fan as an example. If you just search that, you can scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll. And it never ends because there's so many different outlets selling these things.

And that's true for a number of different products. So would that be at play here, I wonder? I think so. You know, domestic market saturation and some of the shifting consumer values leading to this kind of trend. You know, many of these products are now viewed as beautiful but useless. Like a good-looking man. Aww.

A lot of these consumers bought these products and for maybe one or two years, they found that, okay, maybe the enthusiasm just faded away completely.

go with the time. I agree with Yusheng. Ten years ago, I would even search for the keyword 新奇特, meaning new, strange, and special. And when I search for that, it's a thing. It's kind of like a hashtag. You can search on e-platforms when you are purchasing because they would recommend to you, no matter what

kind of function you're looking at. These products must be something strange and new and fun and surprising. Like the karaoke mic microphone. Had that to return to that. Oh, did you? Yes. See, I've looked at that. Every time I see it, I stop and go, I say to my wife, I think we need that. And she says, we do not. And then we keep walking around

How was it? It wasn't good? It was quite good. The only problem, you need that. You should get one of those. The problem with me is that I don't have time to use it because I have a little baby and he would want to play with it all the time and it's too loud and everything. But you need it. And at the same time, I have even bought a light

a pair of lights that I can have one and my then long distance boyfriend can have another one and when I turn it on, he would turn on automatically as well and I can even press a button and talk to him because I would know that when it,

When it's on, I know he turned it on for me so I can talk to him. So it's kind of like a romantic but useless thing because if you... Long distance walkie-talkie. It works. Walkie-talkie and also light so you know whether or not your significant other is there. Yeah, yeah. And you can leave a message. But if you really think...

think about it. If you really want to talk to him, we chat him. So see these kind of things, you have the phase of using them and then you move on. Yeah. Well, yes and no, because I don't want to make it sound like fast tech is completely useless all the time with every product. I bought an ice machine and I use it almost every single day. It's this little

I don't know, it looks like a small safe that you would find in a hotel room. And it just pumps out ice and it's incredibly noisy, which I love. I love that sound when it goes...

that means the ice is ready I love that sound so that's one thing I use all the time and it works perfectly and then we also bought some of these like mini LED lights that are chargeable and then you can put them at different locations around your house so we have plants so we'll put the lights like under the plants like they do in Beijing on the beautiful streets to light up those old gorgeous trees your life is

So romantic. We try to make the house look pretty. It sounds like a construction zone with the ice machine. But my point is, is that it's not all bad. But that being said...

as convenient as these products are, when it comes time to throw them away, it's not very good. In fact, let me rephrase. It's actually terrible for the environment. Yeah, and it will create a surge in electronic waste. Back to that example of UK, fast-tech products like portable fans are often quickly discarded or forgotten. And one report by...

an organization called Material Focus, saying that 7 million minifans sold in the UK last year, over 3.5 million were abandoned. Yeah, and surveys show that more than half of Fast Hack items end up unused or in the trash, echoing the explosive, wasteful cycle seen in Fast Fact.

Yeah, and it's going to seem like we're picking on the UK here for a couple of minutes, which we're not. It's just we're using them as an example. Yeah, it's a global situation. It absolutely is. You mentioned the numbers about the fans, but it's not just the fans. In the UK, they estimate that more than a...

almost 1.15 billion of small electronic gadgets are purchased every year, and about half of those, 589 million, are thrown away in that same amount of time. So in that 12-month span, there's the purchase and there's the throwing away of it. That's the equivalent. This is the math they did in the study.

19 a second. 19 every second. That's not good, obviously, for the environment. I also visited a website. I thought this was quite interesting. This website is called Energy from Waste Network. This is from January of 2024.

They call it the repeat offenders list, right? The things that get thrown away the most. Again, from the UK. 260 million disposable vapes. Don't smoke, everyone. 30 million LED solar and decorative lights. 26 million cables. 10 million USB sticks. 7 million cordless headphones. 5 million mini fans. And the disposing of these electrical items...

is a big challenge and it's multifaceted because most devices contain toxic heavy metals like lead or mercury or cadmium or others. They also have precious metals like gold and flame retardants in there. We've talked about this, I think, on Roundtable before. And if you throw... This is the problem. If you throw away these things with your general garbage...

These dangerous chemicals can leak into landfills and that can put human and animal life at danger. It's bad for the environment. There's a risk there. And they need to be broken down into individual components in order to be handled safely. From the same website, 40% of UK households have an average of 30 unused electrical items each. So my question is, why are we doing this? Why do we buy these things?

And then when it comes time to... You have three handheld fans. Yes. I'm guessing you don't use all of your handheld fans. All the time. Where are they? Well, I'm still using them in different occasions, but I have to admit, I have...

thrown away. Many little devices, household appliances, cell phones, used cell phones, and another major part that we didn't touch just yet, or maybe it's a topic for next time, would be the toys of little kids.

There are so many different toys that contain electric parts. They can sing, they can make, well, they can shine in the little bubble machine. You cannot believe how many types of bubble machines are here in the Chinese market. They're fun when you play with them, but they're also cheap and they're easy to get out of date and easy to broke. So it's not easy because your kid would

grow out of it anyway. So there's no point of making it life lasting anyhow, yet they would pose as a problem. And we didn't touch this, but Roundtable has talked about cell phones. Old cell phones would also be a huge problem. In fact, now every cell phone would last around 2.2 years only on average. And for the past five years here in China, we produced 400 million

By say produce, I mean there are 400 million used cell phones every year. And only a little less than 50% of these cell phones are being recycled into different platforms and being reused, dissembled with the different parts and be reused. So definitely the problem exists. And back to your question of why we're doing this.

I think it's because we want and kind of deserve a better quality of life. We need to make better decisions for sure. And we also need to recycle our garbage in a better manner. But I don't see it as a problem of wanting fun little things that can make us happy in life. It's just the selecting process as well as the disposing process need to be smarter.

As you were saying, that nature of these kind of products, the capability and affordability of these products are making people want to buy them.

But also, this is also forming a kind of mindset of making people that, okay, I can just buy them and throw them away because this is just cheap. Don't throw them away. Recycle them. But that's what I was going to say. See, the problem is the mindset of the customer, which is me, right? That rice cooker I was talking about before, it was 120 yuan. It's about 18 bucks, right? Yeah.

yeah whatever yeah i wasn't upset about it but i also and i can blame a little bit of laziness on this too because i didn't research the proper ways to dispose of this thing i just kind of you know threw it out and i know that's not the right thing to do and that's why i think covering a topic like this is really important today um the mindset of the consumer is this is cheap

The materials are often not made of expensive things, right? I didn't pay $1,400 for this like I did my cell phone.

So I don't care how I throw away. It's this use and throw attitude that comes along with fast tech that I think people need, and myself included, need an adjustment there. But back to my boys' toy kind of example, for some of the little gadgets you have, they are not meant to last longer. And another side of the story is that

In fact, if we stop using the metal or the scarce metal from these used cell phones or used household appliances, we would not have enough money to dig for these metals. So reusing this material is not only a trend, but a necessity in today's society. Yeah, which is why people need to know. And a lot of times with these cheap items, you don't think, oh, there's a battery in there. Hmm.

But there is. Because you can't see it, right? And if you can't see it, then it's not on your mind. So we need to better educate ourselves too. In terms of industry and policy and things like that happening here in China, any response perhaps from the waste management framework and what they're doing about it? Oh, yeah. Comprehensive Waste Management Framework has been built recently.

For so many years, to be honest, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and also eight other departments is actively strengthening policies to promote resource recycling and green development.

One plan is called High Quality Development Implementation Plan for the gold industry. It explicitly includes promoting the recycling of gold and silver from waste, electrical and electronic products as a key task for strengthening...

the green and efficient utilization of resources. And this highlights the government's recognition of the value of these kind of materials within discarded electronics and its push for their recovery. You mentioned actually a lot of very precious materials are included in our smartphones. So that is a very important step to actually recycle it after

the phone are discarded. And we do need to raise the awareness of people's different ways to recycle these types of materials and household appliances. And a fun example I saw was the Tokyo Olympic. What they did is to gather around 80,000 tons of small household appliances and around 6 million used cell phones. They

basically ask people to donate these things and then collect them and they extract 32 kilometer kilograms of gold and some silver and some browns and they use them to make the metal and they give the metal to the medalist it's a good way to raise awareness and tell people that these appliances these things that you want to throw away they are quite valuable yeah i remember seeing that story from the tokyo olympics and i'm a terrible person so my first reaction was

If I win that gold medal, I might feel like... But they're gold. They're gold. I just proved I'm the best in the world at something. You're going to give me a recycled product? No, I'm kidding. It was a great idea, and it should be done every single time that comes around. Final tips, then? What would you say for people who are... Because I don't think we can blame people, right? Fast tech is all around us. It's fun. It's convenient. It's trendy. And like you said, Nyong'o, it makes our lives better.

So what can we do to remind ourselves to maybe be a little bit more responsible when it comes to the environment? Maybe search more information about your products and the platform that you can go for recycling because a lot of times, like you, you don't know what to do with that discarded rice cooker. But if we have more knowledge about maybe it's a secondhand platform or just recycling platform, we can give it to them and they can have better ways to deal with it.

I saw one tip too, and I thought this was really good. If you are a person who forgets that there are valuable materials in there slash harmful materials in there with some of your gadgets,

don't throw one away one by one by one. The tip was, you know, have a box or have somewhere where you'll put them and then when the box is full, then you'll feel like, oh, I should really do something responsible with this instead of, you know, just, oh, here's my little tiny gadget. I'm just going to throw it in with the regular trash. I thought that was a good tip too. Yeah, I have a battery jar at home. Do that. A battery jar. Yes. Very nice. Along with your 1200 mini fans.