Phones and washing machines must be built to last, MPs have said as a government committee launches an inquiry into e-waste.

Mary Creagh, who is launching the enquiry, has said that while in the past technology was built to last, now it is built to degrade in order to produce profit for tech companies.

The Labour MP told The Telegraph: "30 years ago, things were built to last, I had a dishwasher I gave to my sister that was 30 years old. Why is it that dishwashers that are built today break after 10 years? They are designed to break down because this creates profit for the companies.

“Fridges, freezers, kettles and phones cause a tsunami of e-waste”.

According to the Global E-waste Monitor 2017, in one year, a staggering 44.7 million metric tonnes of e-waste are generated.

Of this total amount, 40 million tonnes of e-waste are discarded in landfill, burned or illegally traded and treated in a sub-standard way every year.

Most of the refuse ends up in landfills, is incinerated or simply piles up unused in people’s homes.

People are also inadvertently throwing away precious metals such gold, silver, platinum which are used in the manufacture of microchips, motherboards and other electronics.