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I confess: I’m guilty of holding onto old electronic devices that are long past being useful. Laptops, phones, tablets, keyboards, monitors, you name it, I got it – stashed away on shelves in a closet.

I’m in good company, and research proves it. Of all the options for dealing with old electronics – recycling, reselling, handing down, trading in, throwing away – the one people choose way more than the others is … not dealing. Millions of us hold onto them.

Researchers Eric Williams, Payam Saeedi and Stacey Watson have surveyed consumers to understand this behavior. They explain not just what people do with old devices, but the reasons they, I mean we, have for avoiding letting go.

I have actually recycled quite a few old devices, but I still have a mini technology museum’s worth of gear taking up space. Maybe I’ll bring another load to that big box store a few miles down the road …

Eric Smalley

Science + Technology Editor

This look familiar? Peter Dazeley/Photodisc via Getty Images

The drawer problem: Why so many of us can’t let go of our old electronics, and what we can do about it

Eric Williams, Rochester Institute of Technology; Payam Saeedi, Rochester Institute of Technology; Stacey Watson, University of Waterloo

People don’t usually plan to hold onto their old devices, but that’s what many end up doing. Better information about recycling and reselling options could change that.

Environment + Energy

How local communities are challenging Big Tech data centers’ noise, pollution and rising electricity bills

Rachel Mural, Harvard Kennedy School

Local needs, political tensions and corporate power all get involved in the democratic processes by which Americans govern their communities.
Heat waves increase wildfire risk – a new study explains how much, and it’s not a small number

Dmitri Kalashnikov, University of California, Merced; Cong Yin, University of California, Merced; Madhulika Gurazada, University of California, Merced; Mukesh Kumar, University of California, Merced

Heat waves do more than dry out vegetation that can easily burn. They also play a role in lightning strikes, particularly dry lightning.

Health + Medicine

First new US sunscreen ingredient since 1999 approved by FDA – a skin scientist explains how bemotrizinol works

Guy German, Binghamton University, State University of New York

Consumers in Europe and Asia have used sunscreen containing bemotrizinol for decades, and many say its approval in the US is long overdue.
Quartz countertops are driving a public health crisis in the US – 2 occupational health experts explain the surge of lung transplants and lawsuits

David Michaels, George Washington University; Robert Harrison, University of California, San Francisco

Workers are facing a preventable and incurable lung disease from a material being used to renovate kitchens in millions of American homes.

Science + Technology

NASA announces its Artemis III crew, which will test important equipment and systems in Earth orbit and is testing public opinion

Margaret Landis, Arizona State University

The Artemis program’s timeline and architecture has changed over the past year, so Artemis III will not land on the lunar surface.
Where nature draws the map – here are 5 ways to look at the US, without state boundaries

Stewart Edie, Smithsonian Institution; Torben Rick, Smithsonian Institution

State lines are one way to picture the US, but natural history provides another – one that shows the ancient and living connections running across the landscape.

The drawer problem: Why so many of us can’t let go of our old electronics, and what we can do about it

Environment + Energy

How local communities are challenging Big Tech data centers’ noise, pollution and rising electricity bills

Heat waves increase wildfire risk – a new study explains how much, and it’s not a small number

Health + Medicine

First new US sunscreen ingredient since 1999 approved by FDA – a skin scientist explains how bemotrizinol works

Quartz countertops are driving a public health crisis in the US – 2 occupational health experts explain the surge of lung transplants and lawsuits

Science + Technology

NASA announces its Artemis III crew, which will test important equipment and systems in Earth orbit and is testing public opinion

Where nature draws the map – here are 5 ways to look at the US, without state boundaries