MOTORISTS are shunning traditional sat nav devices in favour of the latest smartphone navigation technology.
Weeebuy.co.uk, the UK’s first recycling website to offer cash for electrical waste is reporting a surge in people recycling their sat navs.
Experts behind the site predicted the three most popular recycled items would be phones, cameras and laptops but sat navs are proving the second most recycled product behind mobile phones.
Smartphones have advanced computing abilities and their multi-functionality is forcing other traditional devices such as MP3 players, digital cameras and sat navs out of the market. Latest statistics say 1.8 million sat nav systems are collecting dust in UK homes.
Chris Rogerson, co founder of weeebuy.co.uk said:
“Smartphones are infiltrating the mass market. More and more people like the ease of having a phone that does everything - it takes pictures, it plays music, it navigates and it even lets you make calls!
“The popularity of sat navs is waning as a result of increased availability of GPS features on smartphones. This doesn’t mean that sat navs will be replaced altogether by smartphones, however the emergence of new apps offering sat nav on your phone will naturally lead to more of us neglecting our old sat nav – which will have a value in most cases!
“We are offering great financial incentives and consumers are realising this. They know sat navs sat unused in drawers at home will depreciate in value. The cash value for recycling sat navs is high right now and I would encourage people to trade-in.”
Mr Rogerson added:
“With weeebuy we want to make sure these unused sat navs don’t end up in landfill a few years down the line when they could be recycled now.”
Other popular items recycled through weeebuy include laptops, games consoles and MP3 players.