The London Borough of Harrow today unveils its plans for the expansion of its small electrical recycling scheme with the installation of six new striking pink collection bins across its library network. From July the hope is that 261,300 local residents will get behind its drive to recycle their electricals.
The six new collection bins located across the Harrow library network, will make it easier to recycle at a location for everyone, whether you’re walking or driving.
This is one of over 60 UK projects funded by Material Focus, the not for profit leading the Recycle Your Electricals campaign, who have provided over £30,000 to support this expansion project. Harrow are joining other projects around the country in making it easier for 10 million UK residents to recycle their electricals with handy, local drop off points.
Alongside the new collection bins, which can be filled with small electricals including mobile phones, tablets, cables, kettles, toasters and kids toys, anything smaller than a standard sized microwave, will be smaller donation bins where residents can drop off old and unused laptops for reuse in the community.
Keep an eye out for HypnoCat, the Recycle Your Electricals mesmerising pink, fluffy mascot, who is on a mission to hypnotise local residents into recycling their electricals.
This project is part of the new 2025 funding for the Electricals Recycling Fund where Material Focus has allocated an additional £750,000. The aim of the nationwide Electricals Recycling Fund is to significantly reduce e-waste and its environmental impact by making it easier for consumers to recycle their electricals. The projects that have been funded by Material Focus include a variety of recycling methods, from kerbside collections to more drop-off points in schools, community centres, and bring banks. Overall, there will be over 400 new collection points plus kerbside collections for 3 million residents – together helping 10 million UK residents to recycle their electricals.
Recycle Your Electricals research has shown that 80% of consumers believe recycling is a good thing, and many of us already recycle things like paper and plastic. Research has also shown that most of us have unwanted electricals we want to get rid of. On average there are at least 30 electricals hidden away in drawers in UK homes, a total of 880 million items across the UK – with a simple repair many could be donated or sold to people who could put them to good use. And yet 39% of people bin electricals, rather than recycle or reuse them leading to over 100,000 tonnes of electricals thrown away every year. The aim of these projects is to overcome these issues by making it easier to repair, donate or recycle electricals.
“We are pleased to support the London Borough of Harrow’s expansion scheme that addresses the pressing issue of e-waste.” said Scott Butler, Executive Director of Material Focus. “By investing in improved collection and drop-off services and exploring new recycling methods, we are taking a significant step towards creating a more sustainable future by making it easier for 10 million more people to recycle their electricals.”
Cllr Stephen Greek, Cabinet Member for Performance, Communications and Culture said, “Here in Harrow, we’re delighted to introduce these brand new pink electrical recycling bins at our libraries. This makes it easier for residents to recycle their electricals which not only helps the environment but also saves taxpayer money. This will also help in our wider plans to increase our recycling rate to 35%.”
