Make it your New Year’s resolution to recycle your
e-waste
Published 23 December 2011
Residents in the Vale of Glamorgan are being encouraged
to recycle their electronic waste as part of a New Year
clear-out.
From Boxing Day, an advert on e-waste recycling will be shown to
34 million viewers in the UK, running for four weeks on UKTV
(channels include Gold, Watch and Yesterday).
In a bid to raise awareness of the problems of e-waste – which
is the fastest growing waste stream in the UK - the Vale of
Glamorgan Council is reminding residents they can take their
unwanted washing machines, fridges and televisions to two
centres.
The recycling centre in Llandow and the Atlantic Trading Estate
in Barry are both open 362 days a year from 10am to 4pm, closing
only on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.
More than a million tonnes of electronic goods are sold every
year in the UK, and figures from Waste Awareness Wales show more
than 466,000 tonnes of e-waste was collected and recycled. This
means 62% of the electronic goods sold in the UK end up in
landfill.
Cabinet member for visible and building services at the Vale of
Glamorgan Council, Councillor Geoff Cox, said: "Raising public
awareness of e-waste recycling is particularly important, because
changes to legislation could mean that across the UK we will have
to meet substantially higher e-waste collection rates from
2016.
"It’s important that our residents look at all materials and
decide whether they can be reused or recycled, instead of
habitually sending items to landfill."
Vale council recycling officer, Michelle Fitzpatrick, said:
"Materials used to produce electronic goods can be used to make new
products. For example plastic from a computer keyboard could end up
in a new musical instrument.
An iron contains enough steel to produce 13 steel cans. It is
important that residents see recycling, rather than land-filling,
as a sustainable and easy choice."
For more information about where you can recycle your
unwanted or broken electronic items, please visit our
recycling pages or go to www.wasteawarenesswales.org.uk/.
Alternatively you can ring 01446 700111 or email: visible@valeofglamorgan.gov.uk