Recycle Now sparks festive campaign for recycling old electricals
With a quarter of us planning to buy electrical or electronic goods as presents this Christmas, many old items will be gathering dust in our cupboards and cluttering up our houses.
New research1 by Recycle Now reveals that, on average, we have around three old, broken or unwanted small electrical goods stored around the home. There’s huge potential to recycle these items into new products, rather than throw them away, and more than two-thirds of us say we would find it useful to have more information on what to do with unwanted electricals.
We tend to recycle large electrical items like washing machines when buying replacements, but when it comes to smaller items, like kettles, cameras and mobile phones, a third of us say we simply throw them away.
154 million2 small electrical products were bought in the UK in the last year alone, equating to around 551,0002a tonnes in total or 22kgs per household. However, in the same period only 56,000 tonnes of small electrical items were recycled. This weight, 22kgs, is equivalent to 188 mobile phones or 22 hairdryers. There are a large number of companies in the UK with the capacity and capability to process this readily-recyclable and valuable type of waste for which there are still viable market outlets.
That’s why high street stores have joined forces with local authorities to make it easier to recycle our old electrical goods. All retailers support recycling facilities – some provide funding for local authority facilities; others take back electricals in their stores.
There are two easy ways to avoid house clutter and get rid of unwanted items without throwing them away this Christmas:
- You can drop them at your local recycling centre – go to www.recyclenow.com to find out your nearest drop-off point. All local authorities across the UK have dedicated facilities for collecting waste electrical goods; these facilities have been financially supported by many retailers.
- A few retailers will take back your old electrical item in store, for example, when you purchase a new item from them, however not all shops do this. Go to www.recyclenow.com to check whether your retailer has chosen to take back electrical waste in their store or chosen to fund the local authority scheme.
Laura Underwood, from Recycle Now, said: “As Christmas shoppers hit the high streets in search of this year’s hot gadget gifts for loved ones, it’s the ideal time to think about recycling old electricals lying about the house to make room for the new ones. If every household returned just one item for recycling, we could reprocess more than 24,500 tonnes3 of unwanted small electricals into new goods.”
Old or broken electricals can be easily transformed and put to new uses; for example, a typical iron contains enough steel to make 13 food cans. Plastic recycled from small household appliances such as kettles or irons can potentially be re-used in new goods, for example games consoles or hairdryers.
Editor's notes:
Video footage of small electrical items being processed and recycled into plastics and metals will be available for the online press to download free of charge from http://www.vismedia.co.uk
1. Recycle Now commissioned YouGov to carry out an online survey. Fieldwork was undertaken between 4th and 6th November 2008 and the total research sample size was 1684 adults. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all England adults (aged 18+).
2. Market sales figures for year ending September 2008 were supplied by GfK NOP. The 154 million small electronic products bought included: 23 million mobile phones; 29 million kitchen appliances (kettles, toasters, mixers, etc.); 23 million personal appliances (hair care, shavers, etc.); 20 million personal audio devices (e.g. mp3 players); 7.5 million LCD TVs; and 5.4 million laptop PCs. Waste electrical figures are those according to the Environment Agency’s statistics from July 2007 to July 2008.
2a. Environment Agency figures for electronic and electrical equipment purchased in the UK July07 – June08. Categories 2 – 9 are classified as ‘small’: Small Household Appliances, IT and Telcomms Equipment, Consumer Equipment, Lighting Equipment, Electrical and Electronic Tools, Toys Leisure and Sports, Medical Devices, Monitoring and Control Instruments
3. This figure has been calculated on the basis that there are 24.5 million households in the UK and that the weight of an average item of waste electrical and electronic equipment is 1kg.
About WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment)
The UK Regulations on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) came into force in January 2007 and place financial and other responsibilities on producers (mainly manufacturers and importers) and distributors (generally wholesalers, retailers and distance sellers) for the collection and responsible disposal of old equipment at end of life. These regulations ensure facilities are in place to enable consumers to return unwanted electrical equipment – basically anything with batteries or a plug – to retailers on the purchase of a replacement item. Retailers not wishing to offer in-store take back must subscribe to a national scheme that supports designated collection facilities at local authority and other recycling and collection centres.
For more information visit: http://publications.environment-agency.gov.uk/pdf/GEHO0507BMOM-e-e.pdf
Many electrical and electronic items are marked with the “crossed-out wheelie bin” logo to help householders identify them (see right):
About WRAP
1. WRAP helps individuals, businesses and local authorities to reduce waste and recycle more, making better use of resources and helping to tackle climate change.
2. Established as a not-for-profit company in 2000, WRAP is backed by government funding from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
3. Working in seven key areas (Construction, Retail, Manufacturing, Organics, Business Growth, Behavioural Change, and Local Authority Support), WRAP’s work focuses on market development and support to drive forward recycling and materials resource efficiency within these sectors, as well as wider communications and awareness activities including the multi-media national Recycle Now campaign for England.
4. More information on all of WRAP's programmes can be found on www.wrap.org.uk
