Give your old electricals a new lease of life this Christmas

13 December 2023

Between used batteries, broken Christmas lights and old electrical items Christmas time often leads to a great deal of electrical waste. West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) is encouraging all residents to dispose of electrical equipment safely this Christmas, and throughout the year.

Old electrical items that are still in working condition can be donated to charity shops or sold second hand for someone else to reuse.

Other broken small items of domestic electrical waste, such as kettles, sandwich makers, hairdryers, irons and other items can be collected and recycled alongside their household collections.

Small items of waste electrical equipment or batteries, which will fit inside a carrier bag should be placed on top of your domestic waste bin as follows:

• Daventry area residents: on top of the black general waste bin
• Northampton area residents: on top of the blue-lidded recycling bin or with their recycling collection box
• South Northamptonshire area residents: on top of either bin

Residents can recycle their single use vapes at Household Waste Recycling Centres or return them to where they purchased them from. Please do not place them with your household waste collection. Large items can be taken to HWRCs or collected using the bulky waste collection service. 

Waste electrical and electronic equipment is the UK’s fastest growing waste stream. We know that your electronics might have been replaced by the latest model this Christmas, many of these items contain valuable plastics and metals which can be recycled.

The good news is that it couldn’t be easier to recycle these items via your kerbside collection service. Using the service not only helps the environment, but it also reduces the risk of fires in our bin trucks and waste facilities.Cllr Phil Larratt, WNC’s Cabinet Member for Environment, Transport, Highways and Waste

More information about recycling electrical items and batteries can be found at www.westnorthants.gov.uk/weeerecycle and Recycle your electricals

WNC’s waste team have also put together a handy guide to Christmas recycling covering a variety of different types of waste.