Recycling old electrical items is no white elephant

Released on 01 June 2012

Households in Surrey Heath will soon be able to put out batteries and small electrical items at the same time as their usual recycling collections.

The Council in conjunction with its waste contractor, Biffa Municipal, is expanding its household recycling collection service to include collections of small electrical items with a plug or use batteries and are small enough to fit into a standard carrier bag. An information hanger will be issued and left on residents green bin during June, which will give full details of the scheme.

The new collections will start at the end of June. Residents should put their electrical items in a carrier bag labelled ELECTRICALS and simply leave it next to their recycling bin on the normal dry recycling collection day. Batteries can also be recycled but need to be bagged separately. Electrical items must not be put into the recycling bin as separate disposal arrangements are required.

To mark the launch of the new scheme, the borough has unveiled its new electrical recycling mascot ROSEi (Recycle Old Small Electricals items). ROSEi is an elephant made from old small appliances like drills, irons and telephones and was inspired by Camberley's familiar concrete elephant landmark on the A30. ROSEi will be on display outside the Council office until the end of June.

Surrey Heath's portfolio holder for community Councillor Vivienne Chapman said: "Through our successful collection service, residents are already recycling 64% of household waste placing us in the top three boroughs nationally. I'm really pleased we will be collecting electrical items that will divert even more waste away from landfill which is great news for the environment.

"The extended scheme offers residents a convenient way to recycle any small electrical item they no longer want and we hope this will continue to push up the borough's recycling rate."

More info, including a list of items you can recycle as part of the scheme is available from www.surreyheath.gov.uk/small-electricals