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There’s a box on a shelf in my closet stuffed with smart smoke detectors, old smartphones, chargers, battery cases, fitness trackers, a Kindle that I sat on and broke and various sensors that have long ceased to detect anything.

This is my pile of smart garbage. And it’s getting bigger every year.

It’s fair to assume that I have accrued more than the average person because I write about new technology for a living and have a penchant for new, shiny things that promise to perform never-before-seen functions. But I would be willing to wager that most people have a pile somewhere, and that it is only going to become larger over the next couple of years.

Many people already own sophisticated, Internet-connected devices, including gaming machines, web-connected televisions, tablets, computers and phones, but some analysts think that the next several billion devices to go online will be everyday objects in our homes, stores, schools, cars and workplaces.

The current hardware economy is exploding. Venture capitalists have poured money into the category. In 2013, investors wrote checks worth $1.1 billion across 153 deals to companies that are developing connected technology products, according to CB Insights, a research firm that follows venture money.

In January, Google agreed to pay $3.2 billion to acquire Nest, which in turn paid $555 million to acquire Dropcam, a company that sells wireless web cameras. Most recently, there were rumors that Samsung, the phone maker, was looking to pay big money for SmartThings, a start-up that makes and sells home monitoring kits.

But the next generation of smart hardware is just beginning to come online.

Companies like Withings, Nest, Canary, August, Philips, Quirky, Jawbone and Belkin are making smart devices for the home, as are AT&T, Time Warner Cable and Lowe’s, the retail chain. Digital art screens, sensor-enabled kitchenware, smart locks, wearable alarm clocks, air quality sensors and Internet-connected hearing devices are in production or available.

Even jewelry has become more aware. A start-up called Ringly makes jewelry and accessories that light up or vibrate when the wearer receives a text message or social media alert.

By some measures, we are witnessing a rapid change in computing and the swift evolution of relationships between humans and automated helpers. A vision of the future is materializing before our very eyes, the development of networked helper bots that will manage every aspect of our lives, automating it and, theoretically, improving it by simplifying it.

But what happens when those devices go into disrepair — or worse, obsolescence — and their sleeker, faster successors go on sale, as part of the relentless cycle common among most major hardware companies?

Is smart garbage the next booming category of electronic waste?

The most recent data available on the Environmental Protection Agency’s website is from 2009, when the agency estimated that five million tons of electronics was in storage and 2.37 million was ready for disposal. Only a quarter was recycled; the rest most likely went into landfills or incinerators.

A secondary economy of fixers — people who swiftly become adept and skilled at fixing our broken gadgetry — may crop up and companies may introduce their own recycling systems to deal with electronic refuse that customers no longer want.

Apple, for example, already has such a trade-in program for old iPods, iPhones and iPads. Gazelle, a company that buys and resells used hardware, said that it had purchased upward of two million devices from over a million people. Most items are Apple and Android phones.

Israel Ganot, the chief executive of Gazelle, said that “so far, we’ve seen very little consumer interest for a trade-in option for wearable devices, like fitness trackers or smartwatches.”

Amanda Peyton, a founder of Grand St., an online electronics shop that was recently acquired by Etsy, said that the smart object phenomenon was still relatively new enough that people had not yet ditched their newest smart gear.

“The category is so new that I think people are still in the fascination phase,” she said. “Though I wonder how quickly this will change.”