Worthing and Adur residents given chance to clear broken or old electrical items from their homes

Kettles, toasters, irons – and other portable items with plugs or that are powered by batteries – are being picked up from the kerbside as part of residents’ weekly waste collections.

The new small waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) collection service, which began on Monday (October 3), is proving popular with residents, according to Adur & Worthing Councils.

Vicki Wells, Worthing Borough Council’s cabinet member for the environment, said the service is making it ‘easier and quicker’ for residents to recycle broken electrical items.

She added: “Everyone can do their bit to help the environment - and this simple move will help redirect tonnes of waste from landfill while saving residents multiple trips to the tip.”

The scheme, which has been launched with support from West Sussex County Council, is part of the councils’ ongoing sustainability drive.

“We’re only five days into the launch of our new WEEE collection service, but it’s been great to see how many of you have got involved and recycled one or more of your old electric household items,” a council spokesperson said.

"So far our waste crews have collected toasters, food blenders, slow cookers, speakers, shavers, DVD players and much more as residents look to clear broken or old electrical items from their homes.

“Please keep it coming. Every electrical item you place out for collection is another item that is recycled into something new.”

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To help publicise the new service, the councils’ refuse and recycling teams will be attaching tags to bins when they have emptied them. The brightly coloured tags give details of the types of items that can and can’t be left out for collection.

If your electronic item is powered by batteries, please remember to remove these before leaving it out for collection.

A spokesperson added: “Batteries can easily cause fires – just last month a recycling load had to be ejected on Victoria Road in Shoreham after the crew noticed it was alight.

“West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service attended the scene and found two lithium phone batteries to be the cause of the fire. The incident took three hours to deal with and the waste had to be quarantined overnight in case it caught fire again – causing an additional cost to the service.

“Many supermarkets offer a battery disposal service or you can take your old batteries to your local recycling centre.”

The plea for residents to recycle their broken electricals is the latest step in the councils’ commitment to reduce the amount of waste produced by households while increasing local recycling rates.

Latest estimates indicate about 82 tonnes in Adur and 77 tonnes in Worthing of electrical waste is thrown away by local households each year.

It is hoped the new free kerbside collection service – combined with efforts to encourage people to reuse items that still work – will halve that amount within 12 months.

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Emma Evans, Adur District Council’s cabinet member for environment and leisure, said: “Thanks to the hard work of local residents, we’ve made real improvements in recent years in reducing the amount of household waste produced while increasing recycling levels. But we can and must go much further.

“This new free weekly service will support that work, making it easier for residents to recycle broken items while promoting alternative ways for appliances which are still working to be reused.”

Residents are encouraged to reuse items where possible, such as by donating those that still work to charity or community organisations.

"But for small items which are broken, all householders need to do is leave them next to their grey or blue bins on the day of their weekly collection – after removing any batteries from them,” the councils said.

"Appliances – which should be able to fit into a plastic bag – will then be taken away to a specialist facility to be broken down and reused in new equipment.”

Larger electrical goods, such as televisions, fridges and microwaves, should be taken to the local household waste recycling sites in Shoreham or Worthing.

To find out more about the new collection service, including which items cannot be accepted, visit www.adur-worthing.gov.uk/recycling.

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