British Formula E racing team Envision Racing has today unveiled its full-size, Formula E Gen3 ‘Recover-E’ racing car made entirely from donated electronic waste. The drivable car, named Recover-e, was unveiled at the ExCeL exhibition centre in London ahead of the city’s e-prix race on 30 July, the final race of the 2022/23 Formula E season.
Formula E is the world’s first fully-electric racing series and Envision Racing is the series’ all-time leading points scorer. Alongside the car, Envision Racing launched the Recover E Waste to Race competition, to engage young people and fans around the world. Children and young people were invited to create their own e-waste car, made out of recycled electronic materials.
Annual e-waste production is on track to reach 75 million tonnes by 2030. In 2022, the UK earned the dismal distinction of having been the generator of the second largest amount of e-waste as a country.
E-waste includes everything from disposable vapes, mobile phones, laptops, MP3 players, plugs and batteries themselves. An astounding 1.3 million single-use vapes alone are thrown away every week in the UK.
To draw attention to the magnitude of the problem and to increase awareness of the human impact of e-waste, the Envision Racing Formula E Team partnered with British artist and designer Liam Hopkins to design and build the car. Through his art, Liam aims to educate people about the importance of sustainability, all while creating works of art. The electronic products used to build the car were donated by the UK tech business, Music Magpie and school children.
Hopkins pointed to one of the key issues at play, namely that ‘today we choose to discard and replace electronics instead of repairing and recycling them leading to a global e-waste crisis’. “Through design and creativity, we want to show the issue of e-waste and its potential to accelerate the creation of a circular economy,” he said.
Envision Racing is known as the 'greenest team on the greenest grid' and is the first and only carbon neutral certified team awarded the FIA's 3 Star Sustainability Accreditation, and the first to sign up to the UNFCCC Sports for Climate Action Framework.
“Alongside testing new battery technology for cars, we are on a mission to tackle e-waste and ensure the precious metals, minerals and materials in old laptops, mobile phones and other electrical devices are extracted and reused,” said Sylvain Filippi, Envision Racing’s managing director and chief technical officer who has been with the team since day 1, said.
“We want to increase awareness of e-waste and help build a ‘circular economy’ where electrical products are reused or recycled, not thrown away.”
