The photos you’ll never post, the accidental screenshots, the blurry photos and the “just in case” snaps buried deep in your camera roll are doing more harm than you think.
Ahead of Digital Cleanup Day 2026, M+C Saatchi Group UK and Bauer Media have partnered with environmental charity Let’s Do It World to launch ‘Not on myPhone’, calling time on the nation’s digital hoarding, revealing that unwanted photos stored on our devices generate a staggering 355,000 tonnes of CO₂ every year, the equivalent weight of 35 Eiffel Towers.
Launched ahead of Digital Cleanup Day 2026 by M+C Saatchi Group UK and Bauer Media in partnership with environmental charity Let’s Do It World, the campaign shines a light on the UK’s invisible but rapidly growing “carbon cloud.”
New data reveals the shocking reality of the UK’s “Carbon Cloud”
The average UK adult generates 10.6kg of CO₂ a year from duplicate and unused images alone
That’s equivalent to 112,500 return flights from London to Perth
Across the UK, unwanted photos produce 355,000 tonnes of CO₂ annually
Over a lifetime, unused data can equal the emissions of driving from Land’s End to John O’Groats
Deleting just 100 photos and a couple of videos saves the same CO₂ as a 17km car journey
Brits now take around five photos a day, contributing to more than 800,000 tonnes of carbon emissions each year, close to a million London to New York flights.
And the problem is only getting worse. Digital technology already accounts for 3.7% of global greenhouse emissions, on par with aviation, and is forecast to rise sharply.
In the UK, the average person takes about five digital photos per day – and across the population, this generates over 800,000 tonnes of carbon annually, comparable to flying from London to New York nearly a million times.
From picture-perfect to painfully real
‘Not on myPhone’ flips the glossy world of smartphone advertising on its head. Instead of pristine images, the campaign showcases the chaotic reality of our camera rolls — blurry snaps, pocket photos and endless duplicates — turned into bold outdoor posters across London, Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow and Edinburgh.
The simple message: take five minutes and clean up your carbon cloud.
Digital Cleanup Day led by Let’s Do It World has already reached 114 million people across 211 countries and territories, collectively deleting more than 16.8 million gigabytes of data and preventing approximately 4,200 tonnes of CO₂ emissions.
As part of this year’s initiative, The University of Northampton is running a week-long pilot encouraging students and staff to take practical steps towards digital sustainability, including a dedicated day focused on deleting unwanted photos.
Heidi Solba, President of Let’s Do It World, said: “Digital pollution is a growing issue that most people never think about. Every photo, screenshot and duplicate image stored in the cloud requires energy to maintain. Digital Cleanup Day encourages people to take small but meaningful actions to reduce their digital carbon footprint. ‘Not on myPhone’ helps make this massive problem visible and shows how simple behaviour changes can make a real difference.”
Guy Bradbury, Creative Partner at M+C Saatchi Group UK, added: “Most of us have thousands of photos on our phones we will never look at again. We store them without giving it a second thought, or a thought for the energy it takes to keep them sitting on a server somewhere. Created in partnership with Bauer Media, this iconic campaign gets people to look again, driving behaviour change and encouraging the nation to take five minutes to clean up their carbon cloud.”
