Recycle Your Electricals
Did you know, discarded electrical items are one of the fastest growing waste streams in the world? Last year over 50 million tonnes were thrown away globally!
While we are generally good at recycling materials such as plastics, glass, paper and card, it seems many of us don’t think about think about our electrical items in the same way.
HypnoCat – the furry face of the Recycle Your Electricals campaign – is here to change our minds. He’s on a mission to hypnotise us into repairing, reusing and recycling our small and unwanted electricals.
Nearly all of us have a messy drawer somewhere around the house. And in it we’ll likely find odd cables, an old smartphone, discarded headphones or numerous other electricals. In fact, UK householders are hoarding 527 million small electricals items!
These unwanted electricals contain 75% of materials that can be recycled or reused, including precious materials like gold, aluminium and steel.
Look into Hypnocat’s eyes and repair!
Broken electrical items may be repairable – check out your nearest Repair Café for more information here.
Look into Hypnocat’s eyes and reuse!
Some charities accept donations of working electricals – check here to find donation points near you. Your old tech can be reused to help children with schoolwork or keep older people connected to loved ones.
Look into Hypnocat’s eyes and recycle!
The Recycle Your Electricals campaign is making recycling small unwanted electricals easier than ever before by providing an information hub for the UK on how to recycle electricals, and a postcode locator with details of over 2,500 recycling, repair and reuse points across the UK.
You can recycle anything with a plug, battery or cable, such as:
Old smartphones and obsolete charging cables
Broken kettles, toasters, blenders and other kitchen appliances
Old electric shavers, electric toothbrushes and hair dryers
Computers, laptops, tablets and games consoles
TVs, speakers and remote controls – and more!
Here’s what to do:
- Bag up your electricals ready to recycle
- If your local council accepts small electricals in the household recycling collection, place them in the appropriate household recycling container. You can check what your council accepts for household recycling here. If not, drop them off at your nearest recycling centre.
- Or go to the Recycle Your Electricals website to find your nearest reuse or recycling point.
- Sit back and feel like you’ve achieved something for the day.
Across the UK we’re all holding on to a lot more items than we realise so why not have a declutter and give your unwanted small electrical a new lease of life! They can be recycled into everything from bicycles to lifesaving equipment or solar panels – even into new electricals!
Give in to Hypnocat – it’s the purrrrfect way to protect our environment and fight climate change.
Don’t forget, as well as recycling your old electrical items, you can also help your bank balance and the planet by selling any unused devices and buying reconditioned phones, tablets, laptops and other electrical equipment. Treat yourself to a tech upgrade at a fraction of the cost! Here’s a handy guide on buying and selling reconditioned devices.
