Recycle Week appeal: "Let's waste less"
Recycle Week is focussing on electrical lovers and asking them to let their unwanted technology and gadgets go.
‘Let’s waste less’ is the request for Recycle Week 2010 with the focus this year on urging electrical lovers to let their unwanted technology and gadgets go.
According to new research launched ahead of the national week (21-27 June), our modern reliance on electrical goods and the emotional bonds we form with them are preventing people in Oxfordshire from recycling unused items. Many of these much-loved items could be put to good use by someone else, or be broken down into components: recycling the valuable materials to help preserve natural resources. To mark the sixth annual Recycle Week, Oxfordshire Waste Partnership (OWP) and Recycle Now are encouraging us to recycle more.
OWP coordinator Wayne Lewis explains: “The aim of this Recycle Week is to encourage us all to think about the many, easy ways we can waste less and make more of the resources we have. There are now more ways than ever to give your electricals a new lease of life. More than a third (37%) of us say we would feel better if we could donate or recycle our unused small electrical goods and Oxfordshire councils are making it easier for us to do just that.”
The research from Recycle Now shows many of us continue to hang on to small electricals when we no longer have a use for them, whether they are broken or have been replaced with the latest model. Respondents admitted keeping their unused electrical items for both sentimental and practical reasons:
- 40% feel too sad to part with an item they no longer use
- 41% hoped the item might come in handy some day, or that they might be able to pass them on to someone
- 23% feel that small electrical items seem too valuable just to throw away
- 29% hang on to them because they are not sure what to do with them.
Wayne adds: “If you’re not sure what electrical items can be recycled look to see if the item has a mains cable, uses batteries or need recharging and you’ll know we can put the raw materials to good uses again.”
Small electricals facts from Recycle Now
- Research shows on average we all have at least three unwanted electronic items cluttering up the home.
- According to recent Recycle Now research, three out of ten of us have never recycled a small electrical item. The main reason is lack of knowledge: knowing what can be recycled (41%) and where to take items (25%).
- Small electrical items we say we already recycle include:
- Mobile phone (20%)
- TV (14%)
- Computer (10%)
- Toaster or Vacuum cleaner (9%)
- Items such as electric toothbrushes, battery-operated watches, electronic toys and hedge clippers were rarely recycled. Many items end up being thrown out with the household rubbish.
- On average, each person in the UK buys three new electrical items each year on average, or 173 million nationally.
- Three quarters of us admit to having at least one old or unused electrical item in our house, with one in ten hoarding five or more of these items.
- 38% of us have at least one electrical item from the last decade stored in our homes unused.
- Amazingly enough, some of us still have unused electricals from the 1960s and 1970s in our homes including original stylophones, lava lamps and the trusty teasmaid.
- Only a third of people believe electrical goods can be recycled.
- More than a third of people (35%) say they don’t know where to take electricals to be recycled.
- A third of us (30%) say we recycle our broken small electricals, but a further third of us say we throw them out with the rest of our rubbish.
- Kettle and mobile phones top the list for goods that have been replaced in the past year (29% have replaced a kettle and 25% a phone).
- 83% would make more of an effort to recycle electricals in the future having been made aware they could.
- The metal in one iron is enough to make 13 food cans.
- The plastic in the average hairdryer, if recycled, could make forty new yoghurt pots.
Rubbish events in Oxfordshire for Recycle Week
| Day | Time | Location | Activity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday 21st - Friday 25th | All week | Dashwood and St Leonard’s primary schools, Grimsbury, Banbury. | Electrical recycling collections as part of Cherwell’s blitz campaign in the area. |
| Monday 21st | End of the school day | Cumnor Primary School | Information stand for parents on the Vale’s new recycling scheme |
| Monday 21st | 10am – 3pm | Templars Square | Information stand from Oxford City recycling team |
| Tuesday 22nd | All day | New Marston Primary School | Information stand from Oxford City recycling team |
| Tuesday 22nd | End of the school day | Watchfield Primary School | Information stand for parents on the Vale’s new recycling scheme |
| Wednesday 23rd | End of the school day | Kennington Primary School | Information stand for parents on the Vale’s new recycling scheme |
| Wednesday 23rd | 3pm – 7pm | Cheney School Festival | Information stand from Oxford City recycling team |
| Thursday 24th | End of the school day | Wantage Primary School | Information stand for parents on the Vale’s new recycling scheme |
| Friday 25th | End of the school day | Botley Primary School | Information stand for parents on the Vale’s new recycling scheme |
| Friday 25th | 9am – 3pm | Headington Farmers Market | Information stand from Oxford City recycling team |
| Saturday 26th | 10am – 4pm | Manzil Way, Cowley Road | Information stand from Oxford City recycling team |
| Saturday 26th | 9am – 1pm | Exeter Hall, Kidlington | Compost giveaway: free compost for Cherwell residents 9am – 1pm made from their old garden waste. |
| Sunday 27th | 9am – 1pm | Bodicote House, Banbury | Compost giveaway: free compost for Cherwell residents made from their old garden waste. |
| Saturday 3rd July | 9am – 1pm | Cooper School, Bicester | Compost giveaway: free compost for Cherwell residents made from their old garden waste. |
