Recycle Your Electricals

Ashford Borough Council is running six community electrical repair, reuse or recycle events 'E-Cycle Revival', across the borough. 

This is made possible due to funding from Material Focus; Ashford Borough Council has been chosen as one of over 40 projects allocated a portion of £2.5 million, to encourage Ashford borough residents to recycle their electricals. 

E-Cycle Revival events invite residents to bring their old electrical items for either repair by the local repair café, reuse - donate to the local charity Pilgrims Hospices or for recycling at the collection banks. The next E-Cycle Revival event will be taking place on Saturday 23 March, 10am - 3pm at Woodchurch Memorial Hall, Woodchurch TN26 3PB.

Items you can bring for recycling 

• Cables & plugs 
• Batteries - where possible please remove batteries and put into the separate battery collection bin
• Personal grooming products e.g. hairdryers and straighteners 
• Personal tech e.g. mobile phones & camera - remember to remove personal data and memory cards
• Small household electricals e.g. alarm clocks, CD/DVD platers, games consoles and headphones
• Small kitchen appliances e.g. kettles, toasters and blenders
• TVs - 32" and below
• Vacuum and steam cleaners

Items you cannot bring for recycling 

• Bulbs
• Electrical saw and knives
• TVs - 33" and above
• Vapes

You can find alternative local recycling points for items not accepted on the day on the Recycle Your Electricals webpage.

Residents can still put out small waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) for collection on refuse weeks. Place these items in a tied clear bag or similar, on top of your grey refuse bin. For more information head to our How do I dispose of? webpage.

Repair Café 

The local Repair Café Ashford is organised by and for residents. They can take almost any item suitable for repair, putting it back together again for reuse, with the aim of reducing waste and maintaining repair skills. If you can't make it to our next E-Cycle Revival event you can visit them on Wednesdays 1pm-4pm at the Singleton Environment Centre Workshop or find them on Facebook @RepairCafeAshford.  

Previous E-Cycle Revival events include:

• Wye - Saturday 14 October at the Village Hall, TN25 5EA.
• Tenterden - Saturday 25 November at EC30, TN30 6RA.
• Smarden - Saturday 24 February at Charter Hall, TN27 8NF.
• Charing - Saturday 2 March at Charing Parish Hall, TN27 0JA.

Background on the project

Material Focus' Recycle Your Electricals research has shown that 80% of consumers believe recycling is a good thing, and many of us already recycle things like paper and plastic. Research has also shown that most of us have unwanted electricals we want to get rid of, even if it’s just a drawer of cables - millions of electrical items are hoarded in UK homes. And yet 39% of people bin electricals rather than recycle them say they think it’s simply too hard to recycle. The aim of these projects is to overcome these issues by making it easier to recycle electricals. Head to the Recycle Your Electricals website to find more details about the campaign and Material Focus. 

Cllr Steve Campkin, Deputy Leader and Portfolio Holder for climate, environment and transport, said: “Great to see this awareness raising initiative in the borough which supports the work of our Household Waste Recycling Centres.

"It adds another dimension to our offer providing a reuse service that not only benefits the circular economy but also a local charity, Pilgrims Hospice, through donations of unwanted but working items."