Five London based projects, funded from the Material Focus Electrical Recycling Fund, have successfully run individual community based small electrical recycling projects throughout 2024 and into 2025 with outstanding results. 540,000 households across the five London boroughs were able to make use of new local sites for recycling small electricals.
Across the five projects, thousands of small electrical items were collected, weighing over 130 TONNES of material and were either repaired for re-use or recycled. The projects were allocated over £254,000 funding by Material Focus the not for profit behind the Recycle Electricals campaign. The funding paid for the introduction of kerbside collections to new bring banks and drop off points at schools, libraries and community centres.
These initiatives have helped residents across the boroughs more easily recycle their unwanted small electrical items such as toasters, kettles, hairdryers and mobile phones:
Community TechAid in partnership with Veolia Southwark Installed 12 collection points in libraries and the Household Waste Reuse Centre, plus refurbished and redistributed repairable tech to local people in need, Overall 1133 tech items were collected and recycled and a significant number re-homed
Lancaster West Neighbourhood Team, a local housing team that is part of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, installed six new recycling points, hosted twelve repair events and workshops collecting 4.73 tonnes of electricals that were recycled, whilst engaging with locals at community events
Lewisham Borough Council installed 27 new on street recycling bring banks and saw an 800% increase in electrical recycling collections with 43.2 tonnes of electricals recycled
Richmond Upon Thames set out to encourage more re-use and recycling within the borough by creating 20 local outdoor bring banks at preexisting public recycling sites and via domestic waste collection vehicles
Wandsworth Council collected over 32 tonnes of e-waste across brand new local recycling points, including 20 on street bring banks and 11 additional banks based in libraries across the borough, and via domestic waste collection vehicles
The Recycle Your Electricals campaign’s hypnotic pink mascot, HypnoCat, featured prominently in posters, flyers and social media throughout the projects, reinforcing the message that anything with a plug, battery or cable can and should be recycled.
These five London projects are part of over 70 UK projects funded by Material Focus, the not for profit leading the Recycle Your Electricals campaign. Together, they are helping 12.5 million UK residents gain access to new ways to recycle their electricals.
Residents can find their nearest collection point at https://www.recycleyourelectricals.org.uk/electrical-recycling-near-me/.
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 collections points plus kerbside collections for 3 million residents.
Research from Recycle Your Electricals revealed;
80% of consumers believe recycling is a good thing
UK homes hold a staggering 880 million unused electricals, at least 30 items per household
Over 100,000 tonnes of electricals are binned every year
39% of people still throw away electricals rather than reuse or recycle them
“These London based projects have proven that small electrical recycling is important to local residents.” Said Scott Butler, Executive Director of Material Focus. “We are delighted with how engaged and supportive the communities have been and how the investment from the Electrical Recycling Fund has enabled such a huge number of items to be recycled. With e-waste being the fastest growing waste stream, we hope to continue to see a rise in the amount of electricals recycled across London and the UK.”
