This year the focus is on small electrical items. This means anything with a battery or plug, including toasters and kettles gathering dust in the loft, old mobile phones in drawers and disused power tools cluttering up the garage

On average each person in the UK buys three new electrical items per year and three quarters of us have at least one unused electrical item sitting unused in our home.

Some people even have unused electricals from the 1960s and ‘70s, including stylophones, lava lamps and teasmaids.

The majority of people don’t realise these items can be recycled, and more than a third don’t know where to take them. Often they are left out with the rubbish – adding to the council’s landfill costs.

A reduction in the amount of rubbish people threw out last year has already helped the council save £300,000 in waste disposal costs

Broken electricals contain valuable materials such as silver that can be used again, saving precious new resources and energy. Many that are disused after an upgrade could find a new home somewhere else.

TV and PC equipment taken to Smuggler’s Way Household Waste and Recycling Centre is taken for reprocessing by  SWEEEP Ltd, whose Kent-based plant is powered entirely by renewable energy. Staff break up screens by hand and separate out the component materials for recycling into new products.

Working electrical items can be taken to any British Heart Foundation Furniture and Electricals shop, or collected for free. Items can also be passed on via a community reuse network such as www.uk.freecycle.org. If you're buying a piece of electrical equipment, the shop is obliged to take the old one back from you.

Look out for the recycling team at the town hall concourse on Wednesday from 11am to 2pm, in Northcote Road, weather permitting, on Friday from 11am to 3pm and at the Lavender Hill festival on Sunday.

 

June 22, 2010