As I’m sure you’ll all remember, the G7 Climate Summit this year was held in Cornwall, with the world’s most influential leaders meeting up to FINALLY tackle the most pressing issue of our times – climate change.
Yeah right. I’m not entirely sure what actually got solved down in Cornwall a few months ago, but Boris Johnson, Joe Biden, Angela Merkel and their contemporaries certainly didn’t seem to do much more than pose for images, discuss the issue of wearing masks and go for expensive-looking dinners.
© Joel Goodman
There was an unprecedented military presence in the area, not to mention the fact that blond-haired goon Boris Johnson decided to fly a plane from London to attend, most likely because he woke up late with caviar and Bollinger all over his belly and needed to get a shifty on.
As you’d also expect, there were plenty of rather raucous protests and demonstrations, and sculptor Joe Rush created Mount Recyclemore – a Mount Rushmore-style depiction of the G7 leaders made entirely of approximately 20,000 individual items of e-waste – aiming to highlight the growing threat of people just throwing away their old electronics and the impact it has on the Earth.
Now that the summit is finished, and the world’s leaders can go back to doing what they do best (nowt), Steve Oliver, founder and CEO of Stockport’s musicMagpie decided to give Joe Rush a bell and bring Mount Recyclemore to the town – sitting proudly at Stockport Exchange for the duration of the Summer.
The installation, made from approximately 20,000 items of e-waste, from old cameras, mobile phones, to computers, will form part of Stockport Business Improvement District’s Totally Stockport summer activities, which will also include an art trail of 21 gigantic frogs, a food festival and Stockport’s first Enduro cycling festival.
Mount Recyclemore was created to raise awareness of the growing problem of e-waste, which is reported to be the fastest growing waste stream in the world. According to the UN, the current 53 million tonnes of e-waste generated annually worldwide will more than double by 2050.
Despite this growing environmental issue, musicMagpie’s own research has found that an alarming four in five (79%) Brits do not know what e-waste is. When given the definition of e-waste, nearly a third (31%) didn’t believe it damaged the environment or were unsure, while 45% weren’t aware it impacted climate change.
Steve Oliver, founder and CEO, at musicMagpie, said: “I’m delighted to be able to bring Mount Recyclemore back to our hometown of Stockport. The sculpture is simply incredible to look at and caused a worldwide stir when we unveiled it during the G7 summit in Cornwall. E-waste is a growing problem worldwide and its impact on the environment is significant.
“Our research has found that almost half of Brits currently do not recycle, resell, or donate their old tech to charity, with most opting to hold onto it instead where it ends up at the back of drawers collecting dust. Staggeringly, almost five million adults** even openly admit to throwing old tech in the bin at home.
“I’m hoping that not only will coming to see Mount Recyclemore provide an amazing day out for adults and children alike across this summer, but also help to better educate and empower people to make changes today. People can support a more sustainable, circular economy, by doing something as simple as trading in or recycling their tech, which will extend the life of those devices and their parts. Thanks to our customers, we are already able to give nearly half a million consumer technology products a second life each year.”
………………………………….
Find out more about Stockport Council’s Climate Action Now Strategy
