Live Simply June 2024
Live Simply and Sustainably with Creation
Recycle your Waste Electrical, Electronic Equipment
There will be a collection of unwanted, unused or broken electrical and electronic equipment at church during June.
Please have a look around your home for anything with a plug, wire, battery or electronic component that you no longer use- whether it’s working or not and bring them to church to be recycled.
We will be collecting all things electrical and electronic including computers, mobile phones, game consoles, small kitchen appliances, , electrical and electronic tools, chargers, cables and wires. The collection will take place throughout June.
Where will it go?
Everything we collect will be taken to Aspire Community Enterprise in Sheffield. It is a social enterprise specialising in recycling computers, mobile phones and all electrical equipment including wires and cables. They provide training and jobs and a supported working environment for vulnerable or marginalised people.
The collection is our contribution to UK Great Big Green Week this year
The Great Big Green Week is the UK’s biggest ever celebration of community action to tackle climate change and protect nature. Every year, tens of thousands people come together to unleash a wave of support for action to protect the planet, stand up for nature and fight climate change.
By taking action together at the same time in every corner of the country, politicians will be unable to ignore that their constituents care about tackling climate change and protecting nature. This is crucial in a year where we will likely see a general election, so it’s important to get our voice heard.
We need to get back on track to a world that works for everyone. Let’s do something together for good.
Why Recycle Electrical and Electronic Waste?
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) is one of the fastest growing waste streams. In 2020 the world produced 50 million tonnes of electronic waste (e-waste) E-waste includes anything with a plug, cord, battery or an electronic component such as kitchen appliances, mobile phones, computers, TVs, electrical and electronic tools. These can all be either recycled or reused.
Why is it important to recycle electrical items?
A huge amount of electrical items are purchased each year and currently only a small proportion, particularly small items, are collected for recycling. Many of us are not aware that items such as irons, toasters and mobile phones can be recycled. These items have a tendency to sit in a cupboard or drawer and gather dust, instead of being put to better use. Discarded or hoarded household electricals costs the UK economy £370 million every year due to lost valuable raw materials such as gold, copper, aluminium and steel.
Electrical items contain a range of materials that can be separated for recycling and used in new products, such as plastics and precious metals including gold and copper. All this saves resources and energy for example - it takes a tonne of ore to get 1g of gold, but you can get the same amount from recycling 41 mobile phones. Making one new desktop computer and monitor uses over 240kgs of fossil fuel, 21kgs of chemicals (including rare non-renewable elements), and 1.5 tonnes of fresh water. Reusing and recycling Waste Electrical and Electronic equipment as much as possible saves precious resources and a significant amount of energy.
How is Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment used?
Electrical items contain many different parts which, once recycled, can be used again in a variety of new applications. For example, the copper motor in a hover mower can be turned into copper pipe, copper wire, and winding wire for motors in new electronic products. Precious and semiprecious metals can be extracted from mobile phones and their batteries can be recycled. There are other useful parts which can be re-used such as aerials, battery connectors, LCD screens, lenses, microphones, phone housings, screws, SIM card assemblies and speakers.
How much Electrical and Electronic waste does UK produce?
The UK is the second-highest producer of e-waste in the world, if recent trends continue; the UK will become the world’s biggest contributor by 2024. The nation throws away 1.50 million tonnes of E-waste every year, on average each person in the UK buys three new electrical items and produces 23.9 kg of e-waste – a third of our body weight! Only a fraction of these items is sent to be recycled - that's a lot of e-waste.
In addition 39 million tech items are hoarded in homes around the country outdated, broken, unused and unloved, including £1.5 billion worth of working laptops that could be resold. Nearly every household has at least one old charger and yards and yards of old cables and wires.
How to recycle broken or unwanted electrical items
Items that are still in working order can be re-used; local charity shops such as Mind in Dinnington High Street and the Cancer charity shop in Thurcroft accept electrical items. Electrical and electronic equipment is accepted at the Waste Recycling Centre on Common Lane North Anston and at many retailers including B&Q, Curry’s and Boots. The items are then taken for repair or reprocessing and the raw materials are distributed to create brand new things.
Note - Unwanted electrical items should not be put in the bin!!!!!!!!!!!!
Everything we collect will be taken to Aspire Community Enterprise Sheffield
Aspire is a social enterprise specialising in recycling computers, mobile phones and all electrical equipment including wires and cables. They provide training and jobs and a supported working environment for vulnerable or marginalised people.
What do they do with the donated equipment?
They always try to refurbish as much of the equipment donated as possible for re-use. They sell low cost computer equipment to schools, low income families, charities and start-up companies. Then they recycle whatever remains which provides valuable work experience and placements for vulnerable and low skilled workers. Volunteers and trainees gain valuable work experience and qualifications.
Data security of donated equipment:- All data is wiped in a secure data unit.
Quality assured. Everything that leaves Aspire is refurbished to a very high standard. The time spent stripping and rebuilding items, tests that are run and criteria that has to be met far exceeds what others in the industry deem acceptable. PCs are supplied with genuine Microsoft software obtained under the Microsoft Authorised Refurbisher programme.
Training and work placements are provided for vulnerable and excluded people in a supported environment by the friendly staff and volunteers. The trainees gain skills, qualifications, experience, and confidence.
The event is a great opportunity to protect the planet, stand up for nature, fight climate change and help provide work for vulnerable and marginalised people, please join in.