Residents recycle their old electricals

OLD hairdryers, kettles, vacuum cleaners and even a video camera have been recycled by residents in Carmarthenshire.

The WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) events were held at Llanelli and Carmarthen leisure centres.

Organised by Carmarthenshire County Council in partnership with DHL Envirosolutions, the aim was to raise awareness that small electrical items can be recycled.

People were encouraged to bring along any old electrical items they had hanging around the home that they no longer wanted.

In total, 626kg of old electricals were brought along to be recycled – about three skip fulls!

The events were held during the Easter school holidays as part of the Child Safety Fun Days organised by the council’s Road Safety Unit.

A competition was also held to guess which broken-down electrical items were in three glass jars – there were lots of guesses but the answers were the inside of a fridge-freezer, television screen, and mixed plastics from old electricals. There were two winners, one drawn at each event, and they both won a popcorn maker, provided by DHLEnvirosolutions.

Council waste minimisation/recycling officer Karen Fulham said: “It is important that we reduce and recycle as much of our waste as possible. Everyone knows that you can recycle paper and tins, but few of us realise that old electrical items such as toasters and power tools can also be recycled.

“Research shows that around 30 per cent of us simply throw broken or unwanted items away in the rubbish, whereas if we switched to recycling these items we could divert over 100,000 tonnes of valuable waste electricals from UK landfills each year, weighing the equivalent of 14,000 double-decker buses.”

By keeping old WEEE separate from other household wastes it can be treated, the hazardous substances can be removed and a large proportion recycled rather than sent to landfill.

Karl Greig, general manager WEEE operations at DHL Envirosolutions, said: “DHL Envirosolutions is thrilled to be working in partnership with Carmarthenshire County Council to raise awareness of WEEE recycling. We are extremely delighted with the excellent response from residents and would like to thank them for their recycling efforts.”

CAPTION: Pictured at Llanelli Leisure Centre are iron mascot Mikhaela Norrie, council officer Sharon Griffiths and Laura Cliffe from DHL Envirosolutions.

Pictures: Jeff Connell.