[srg0]

The valuable part of the charger and the cable is not actually plastic. The point is that replaced chargers account for ~ 1_000_000 kg of e-waste per year.

Cable is 30% copper, 24% stainless steel, 16% other non-plastic materials. EPS is 13% copper and copper alloys, 7% aluminium, 6% steel, 37% other non-plastic components.

According to EU studies, 31% of the EPS and cables are incorrectly disposed.

https://op.europa.eu/o/opportal-service/download-handler?ide...

They are not _especially_ bad compare to other waste, but it is the waste that be easily avoided.

[southerntofu]

Entirely agree with your point. However, i would point out that there's many other sources of waste that can be easily avoided:

- food waste and related food wrapping waste

- planned obsolescence (TVs, cars, washing machines, and just about every product out there)

- car-oriented architecture in the cities, where public transportation is an afterthought

- energy waste due to personal infrastructure/tooling (cooking/washing/heating infra, personal TV vs shared screening rooms, etc)

- war and social control: what's the environmental cost (transportation, manufacture of mechanical/chemical weapons) of repression (of, say an environmental protest like the anti-COP21 movement)? what about an outright war on a foreign nation?

These are just examples, but environmental concerns are rather "easy" to tackle given proper political will. The problem is people concerned with the coming ecological apocalypse are either ignored, silenced, bullied, mutilated or murdered by Nation States and multinationals.

[foepys]

The EU is also tackling all those points you mentioned. Many single-use plastics are already banned in the EU, the EU wants smartphone manufacturers to support their hardware for at least 5 years, many EU members give out incentives to improve house insulation, EV will become the norm in a few years and energy standard get stricter every few years.

It's not like the whole EU legislative body is now pushing with all their might to ban phone chargers, it's just a single working group of many.

[ReGenGen]

Perhaps EU should focus its energy and credibility on more important issues including ones you mentioned.

[zaarn]

The EU can tackle more than one issue at once. In fact, the EU has already put out mandates and regulations to reduce food packagin waste and a directive to combat planned obsolescence in TVs and Kitch Appliances.