Ashford celebrates success of E-Cycle Revival

Ashford celebrates success of E-Cycle Revival, a series of community events for recycling, donating and repairing electricals. 3.2 tonnes of electrical items were recycled, 52 items booked in to be repaired by a Repair Café and 209 items donated to local charity.

The six community events organised by Ashford Borough Council with support from local communities, successfully collected 3.2 tonnes of small electricals for recycling, as part of the E-Cycle Revival, which was launched in October 2023.

E-Cycle Revival engaged residents across the borough to bring their old electrical items for either recycling, donating to the local charity Pilgrims Hospices or repair with the local Repair Café.

This project has demonstrated how committed the local community is to recycling their small electricals, when simple recycling methods are made accessible. The consistent local reminders from Hypnocat, the Recycle Your Electricals mesmerising pink, fluffy mascot, who featured in leaflets, posters, banners and social media also made locals aware that anything with a plug, battery or cable can be recycled and turned into something new, ran alongside the project.

Small electricals including toasters, kettles, sandwich makers, hairdryers or irons can be recycled, simply. Use the Recycle Electricals website to search where locally you can take your electrical items for recycling.

This is one of over 40 UK projects funded by Material Focus, the not for profit leading the Recycle Your Electricals campaign. E-Cycle Revival, joined other projects around the country in making it easier for 10 million UK residents to recycle their electricals.

The aim of the nationwide Electricals Recycling Fund is to significantly reduce e-waste and its environmental impact by making it easier for consumers to recycle their electricals. The projects that have been funded by Material Focus include a variety of recycling methods, from kerbside collections to more drop-off points in schools, community centres, and bring banks. Overall there will be over 400 new collection points plus kerbside collections for 5.5 million UK residents.

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. On average there are at least 30 electricals hidden away in drawers in UK homes, a total of 880 million items across the UK - with a simple repair many could be donated or sold to people who could put them to good use. And yet 39% of people bin electricals, rather than recycle or reuse them leading to over 100,000 tonnes of electricals thrown away every year. The aim of these projects is to overcome these issues by making it easier to repair, donate or recycle electricals.

Cllr Steve Campkin, Cabinet Member for Climate, Environment and Sustainability for Ashford Borough Council, said “We organised these events over six months in rural areas of the borough, with the aim of highlighting how residents can recycle, reuse or donate their old electricals and to also realise just how many they have sitting in their homes unused.

“All the events were well received by local residents, with over 250 people attending them. This would not have been possible without the support from the local Parish and Community Councils, volunteers and local Repair Café who gained two more volunteers to join their now busy team.”

"E-Cycle Revival has proven that small electrical recycling is important to the area and its residents.  We are delighted with how engaged and supportive the local community has been and how the investment from the Electrical Recycling Fund has funded the local project.  As e-waste is the fastest growing waste stream, we hope to continue to see a rise in the amount of electricals recycled across the UK” said Scott Butler, Executive Director of Material Focus.