West Northants residents urged to give electricals a new lease of life

31 January 2024

Residents are being encouraged to give old or broken electrical items a fresh lease of life by recycling them through West Northamptonshire Council’s kerbside collection service.

From toasters to kettles, sandwich makers to hairdryers or irons, anything with a plug, battery or cable can be recycled and turned into something new via the service.

Research conducted by Material Focus revealed that nearly 40% of UK adults bought nearly 40 million items of household tech between Black Friday and Christmas. On top of this 2 million electricals are binned in this time and a further 2.2 million are put away in cupboards and drawers. Here’s what West Northants residents can do if you have bought new electricals over the holiday period and are doing a clear out.

Small items of waste electrical equipment and 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
• South Northamptonshire area residents: on top of either bin

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

Residents can recycle their single use vapes at Household Waste Recycling Centres or return them to where they bought them from. Please do not place them with your household waste collection.

Large electrical items can be taken to recycling centres, or collected using the bulky waste collection service. 

Unwanted electricals are one of the fastest growing sources of waste in the UK. People might be clearing out and decluttering, which can include old electrical items. These items usually include valuable plastics and metals, so if they can’t be reused, repaired or donated then they can be recycled with our easy kerbside collection service.

Using this service not only helps the environment, but it also reduces the risk of fires in our bin trucks and waste facilities.Cllr Phil Larratt, Cabinet Member for Environment, Transport, Highways and Waste

This communications campaign is one of 40 UK projects funded by Material Focus, the not for profit organisation leading the Recycle Your Electricals campaign. It will lead the way in West Northamptonshire, joining other projects around the country in making it easier for 10 million UK residents to recycle their electricals.

DEFRA is currently consulting on updated measures to require retailers and the supply chain to accept more electrical goods to be returned for recycling. These additional requirements are not yet in place and the Council’s collection scheme compliments any arrangements required for retailers, giving residents more choice.

More information about recycling electrical items and batteries can be found at www.westnorthants.gov.uk/weeerecycle and www.recycleyourelectricals.org.uk