What do you do with your old tech?

The amount of unwanted tech and electrical items that we keep in our homes is growing, according to new research.

Whilst a lot of people choose to give items away second-hand, or sell their old gadgets, often these devices end up sitting in drawers at home or being thrown in the bin.

Material Focus, a recycling campaign group, says we've gone from keeping an average of 20 electronic items to 30 within four years.

The top ten products include remote controls, mobile phones and hairdryers.

The group estimates over 880 million unused items are being held in UK homes and it says electronics that we no longer use should not go in the general waste.

With the UN reporting that electronic waste is rising five times faster than the amount we recycle, campaigners say it's important to properly dispose of or recycle tech that we no longer use.

Scott Butler, executive director of Material Focus, says most families probably have a "drawer of doom", which has "got cables in there that we don't know what they're for: it's got a DVD remote for a DVD player that we lost a long, long time ago".

We want to know - do you have any old gadgets lying around and what does your family do with your out of date tech? Let us know in the comments.

If you can't see this vote, click here.

E-waste and pollution

Phones, computers, laptops and tablets can all end up in huge piles of electronic waste

When old electronic devices are thrown away in general waste, they can end up in landfill and buried in the ground.

This can lead to harmful chemicals leaking out from the metals inside the device.

When these chemicals leak out, they can damage the nearby environment for plants and animals.

What do you do with your old unwanted tech?

Why is taking care of our old tech important?

Old laptops and electric toothbrushes can contain steel, aluminium, copper, lithium batteries and even gold that can be reused.

"If you look at the electricals that we're throwing away and that we're holding onto [in the UK], we think over a £1bn billion in value of 'treasure', is sitting there untapped," says Scott Butler.

Justin Greenaway, from SWEEEP, a specialist household electrical recycling centre, says that whenever there's anything complicated going on inside a computer, all the connections need to be covered with gold.

"Our process allows us to recover that gold and get it back into use again. Obviously if we don't capture it and it goes into landfill or incineration that gold is lost."

Many things can be recycled or even shared through different schemes.

If you have a phone that doesn't work anymore, most electronics shops will take them in to recycle them.

If you're heading to buy a new one, don't forget to take your old one with you, and it can be recycled too.

Small gadgets can be recycled at recycling centres, and larger ones like TVs can sometimes be picked up by your local council.