Recycle Your Electricals is back with the great cable challenge campaign. A nationwide call to action to tackle the millions of cables and other electricals sitting idle.
Research from Recycle Your Electricals reveals UK homes are holding onto and throwing away enough cables to reach the moon and back!
- Gravesham Borough Council is partnering with Recycle Your Electricals to help Gravesham households recycle their unwanted electricals and give old cables and other electricals a second life.
- If all the residents in Gravesham recycled just one cable each, we could save at least 535 kilograms of copper from being lost forever, or sitting idle in a ‘drawer of doom’
This October, Gravesham Borough Council is working with Recycle Your Electricals (Recycle Your Electricals - WEEE Recycling - Material Focus) to encourage Gravesham residents to take part in The Great Cable Challenge - a nationwide call to action to tackle the millions of cables and other electricals sitting idle or thrown away across UK households. Cables when recycled can save valuable copper being lost forever. This annual initiative is part of this year’s International E-Waste Day which is taking place on 14th October.
The challenge comes as research commissioned by Recycle Your Electricals reveals that Brits are holding onto and throwing away enough cables to reach the moon and back. By recycling these cables and other old electricals instead of holding onto them, the valuable materials inside these electricals such as copper can be reused and recycled into new items including mobile phones, laptops, smart watches, clean energy and even medical equipment.
Simply bag-up your cables and recycle at the Civic Centre reception between 7th October and 15th October, or take them to your nearest recycling point (Electrical recycling - Where to recycle & donate)
Cllr Morley, Portfolio Holder for Operational Services said, “Our electrical recycling bins have proved to be a great success since we introduced them, and we are grateful to everyone who makes use of them.
“Now is the time to hunt down those metres of cable that you no longer use, the cables that were for electrical items long since disposed of and take them to our pink bins.”
Recycle Your Electrical research has found that two-in-five UK homes (39%) keep hold of their small electricals in a ‘drawer of doom’ - our secret, often hidden stashed of unused electricals and broken tech found in many households. In fact, over a quarter of these respondents (28%) said they felt embarrassed, annoyed or frustrated by the small electricals they store in their homes.
One-in-five people don’t recycle their electricals because they don’t know how (21%) or it is too difficult (21%) - but the good news is it’s now easier than ever to recycle unused cables and electricals using Recycle Your Electricals’ Recycling Locator (Electrical recycling - Where to recycle & donate). Just enter your postcode to find your nearest repair, donation or recycling point which has over 30,000 locations across the UK.
With millions of cables cluttering up UK homes, Recycle Your Electricals has published a handy Cable Guide (Material-Focus-The-Great-Cable-Guide-25.09.24.pdf). With 35 of the most used cables, the guide provides easy to use visuals to match cables to their original electricals. If the electricals or the cables are no longer working or they aren’t needed anymore, simply bag up your cables and recycle them! You can view the Cable Guide HERE (Material-Focus-The-Great-Cable-Guide-25.09.24.pdf).
International E-Waste Day is a global moment to highlight electrical waste - the fastest-growing waste stream in the world, and in the UK. The day aims to encourage householders to participate in this year’s campaign by encouraging everyone to recycle their cables and their household electricals.
