Wednesday, March 19, 2025
A recent study from researchers at the University of Waterloo reveals that the amount of electronic waste (e-waste) in Canada has more than tripled in the last 20 years. The study, published in May 2023 in the Journal of Hazardous Materials, suggests that e-waste is steadily increasing in Canada. The researchers say that in 2020 close to a million tonnes of e-waste generated in Canada, while less than 20 per cent of it was collected and recycled.
What can we do with old record players, VCRs, laptops, cell phones, and motherboards? The simple answer is to recycle them. But Envision Racing, in partnership with actor and artist Aidan Gallagher and designer Liam Hopkins, decided to do something different by building the Recover-e, a Formula E Gen3 car, entirely out of e-waste.
“We are all using more and more electronics, yet only very little is recycled,” said Sylvain Filippi, team principal at Envision Racing, “So it’s pretty incredible to see a full-size Gen3 electric formula car made entirely of recycled electronics.”
“The purpose of [the project] is to open up the discussion of e-waste in an exciting way. What can be more exciting than building a racecar?” said Gallagher on the project.
Formula E team Envision Racing unveiled the full-size, drivable Formula E Gen3 Recover-E car made entirely out of electronic waste such as vapes, iPhones, and patched-up circuit boards at the ExCeL in London on the eve of the capital’s e-prix race on July 29th, 2023.
Featured image credit: Envision Racing.
