An estimated 4.3 million mini-fans are likely to be thrown away in household rubbish bins this year, according to new research from Material Focus. The latest surge mirrors a trend seen in July 2025, when demand for portable fans rose sharply during periods of hot weather.

The organisation said demand for the portable cooling devices has increased sharply during this summer's hot weather, with around 7.9 million mini-fans expected to be bought across the UK in 2026.

Material Focus said the figures illustrate the rise of so-called "FastTech" products – inexpensive electrical items designed for convenience, including mini-fans, charging cables, earbuds and novelty gadgets, which are often discarded after limited use or left unused in homes.

What is "FastTech"? FastTech refers to inexpensive, mass-produced electronic gadgets with short lifespans that consumers often treat as disposable and discard after minimal use.

Scott Butler, Executive Director of Material Focus, said: "Mini-fans, one of the poster children of FastTech, first appeared en masse last year and more are surging onto the market during this heatwave, helping us deal with this extreme heat.

"However, as quickly as they are bought, many are thrown away or lie forgotten at the bottom of our drawers of doom."

The not-for-profit said online interest in mini-fans rose significantly during June's heatwave, with Google searches for the products more than twice as high as in the previous month.

Although the devices have become increasingly popular during spells of hot weather, Material Focus warned that they are frequently disposed of incorrectly despite containing materials that can be recovered and reused, including copper, lithium and small quantities of gold.

If mini-fans are placed in general household waste, those resources are lost when the products are sent for disposal through landfill or energy recovery rather than being recycled.

Butler added: "What we should do instead is make sure if it doesn't work anymore we safely recycle it.

"Search up recycle your electricals to find your nearest recycling point."

There are approximately 30,000 locations across the UK where small electrical items can be recycled, including household waste recycling centres, participating supermarkets and electrical retailers.

The organisation is encouraging people to recycle unwanted mini-fans through these collection points rather than disposing of them in their household waste.

Material Focus has issued a warning about the growing environmental impact of "FastTech" items, following a sharp rise in demand for mini portable fans and similar low-cost electronics.

Data from Google Trends revealed a 16% year-on-year increase in interest for mini fans as of May 2025. The warning forms part of Material Focus’s Recycle Your Electricals campaign, which highlights the mounting waste generated by these cheap, short-lived gadgets.

FastTech refers to inexpensive, mass-produced electronics such as LED lights, earbuds, mini karaoke machines and cables – often priced from as little as £1. While widely purchased, many are quickly discarded. Material Focus estimates that 55% of FastTech items bought each year are either binned or lost, with 589 million items thrown away in 2024/25 – a 25% rise from the previous year. This equates to the waste volume of 2,278 football pitches.

Spending on FastTech is forecast to soar from £2.8 billion in 2023 to £11.6 billion by 2025. Around 84% of UK adults bought at least one FastTech item last year, owning an average of 21 per person.

Cathrine Jansson-Boyd, professor of consumer psychology at Anglia Ruskin University, compared FastTech’s environmental harm to that of fast fashion: “We need to stop seeing these items as disposable.”

Material Focus executive director Scott Butler added: “FastTech might be cheap, but it’s not disposable. These items contain valuable materials like copper, gold and lithium — all being lost to landfill.

“Anything with a plug, cable or battery should never go in the bin.”

The organisation’s recycling locator can help households easily find local drop-off points for old or unused electricals.