London,
11
April
2016
|
11:29
Europe/London

Repair or recycle your old electrical items

Old and broken electrical items may seem worthless, but in fact they are full of valuable materials like gold and zinc

The plastics and metals in waste electrical items can be separated and sent to be recycled. But in 2015, only 1.4% of electrical waste in Hackney was recycled, with the rest ending up in the bin.

Most broken items do not even need to make it to the recycling bin - they can be repaired and re-used fairly easily. Hackney Fixers runs free, fun Restart Parties to help people fix electrical and electronic goods. They advertise their events on their website, which also contains repair tips and a map of local repairers.

If items are beyond repair then it is easy to recycle them. As well as 17 permanent recycling banks, there are 14 extra drop off points for items like phones, toasters, kettles, and DVD players.

One iron contains enough steel to produce 13 drink cans, so dropping it into a recycling bank instead of putting it in the bin helps save energy and resources. Cables, plugs, chargers and remote controls can all be recycled too.

The Council will collect larger appliances like washing machines and TVs free of charge - residents just need to book a collection