This week in Las Vegas, Tech companies at CES 2026 The latest wearable health devices are being unveiled – glucose monitors, blood pressure trackers, fitness trackers. Perhaps No It is mentioned in the show that these gadgets can cause a huge environmental problem.
It’s not something that gets much attention, but a new study Cornell University and the University of Chicago found that by 2050, demand for health wearables could reach 2 billion units per year, or 42 times more than today. Unless we change the way we make them, these devices could generate more than one million tonnes of electronic waste and 100 million tonnes of carbon dioxide over the same period, the authors warn.
An even bigger surprise is that the problem isn’t plastic. The study published in Nature found that the printed circuit board – the “brain” of the device – accounts for 70% of its carbon footprint, largely due to intensive mining and manufacturing.
The researchers suggest two solutions: developing chips using common metals like copper instead of rare minerals like gold, and making the devices modular so that the circuit board can be reused when the outer casing is replaced.
“When these devices are deployed on a global scale, small design choices add up rapidly,” wrote one of the study’s co-authors. That’s something to think about when scrolling through CES announcements.
