Carmarthenshire staff join in Recycle Week
Council staff in Carmarthenshire were encouraged to bring and not bin their old electrical items to be recycled during Recycle Week.
Many of us are already recycling everyday items such as newspapers, cans and plastic bottles but old and unused electrical items can also be recycled from broken toasters and kettles gathering dust in the loft, to old mobile phones in drawers and disused power tools cluttering up the garage.
To raise awareness of this the council’s waste team put pink skips in council offices during Recycle Week and asked to staff to bring in any small electrical items that were either broken or not being used anymore.
Research shows that just under 30 per cent of us simply throw broken or unwanted items away in the rubbish, whereas if we switched to recycling these items we could divert over 100,000 tonnes of valuable waste electricals from UK landfills each year - the equivalent weight of 14,000 double decker buses!
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) is one of the most harmful waste streams still being sent to landfill as it contains hazardous substances such as mercury, lead, beryllium and cadmium. When disposed of to landfill these substances are released into the ground where they pollute the surrounding area.
By keeping old WEEE separate from other household wastes it can be treated, the hazardous substances can be removed and a large proportion recycled rather than sent to landfill.
The council’s executive board member for the environment Councillor Haydn Jones said: “There are now more ways than ever to give your electricals a new lease of life, as well as being recycled into something new, they can also be donated to a good cause, for example, the British Heart Foundation have a furniture and electrical store in Llanelli where your old items can be reused and sold to raise vital funds.”
Your old electricals can be taken to the county’s Household Waste Recycling Centres at Trostre (Llanelli), Nantycaws (Carmarthen), Wernddu, (Ammanford), Llangadog and Whitland.
For further information call Carmarthenshire Direct on 01267 234567 or visit www.carmarthenshire.gov.uk
Pictured recycling their old electricals with council recycling/waste minimisation officer Karen McNeil are County Hall staff Sara Mair Williams and Terence Evans.
Picture: Jeff Connell.
Many of us are already recycling everyday items such as newspapers, cans and plastic bottles but old and unused electrical items can also be recycled from broken toasters and kettles gathering dust in the loft, to old mobile phones in drawers and disused power tools cluttering up the garage.
To raise awareness of this the council’s waste team put pink skips in council offices during Recycle Week and asked to staff to bring in any small electrical items that were either broken or not being used anymore.
Research shows that just under 30 per cent of us simply throw broken or unwanted items away in the rubbish, whereas if we switched to recycling these items we could divert over 100,000 tonnes of valuable waste electricals from UK landfills each year - the equivalent weight of 14,000 double decker buses!
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) is one of the most harmful waste streams still being sent to landfill as it contains hazardous substances such as mercury, lead, beryllium and cadmium. When disposed of to landfill these substances are released into the ground where they pollute the surrounding area.
By keeping old WEEE separate from other household wastes it can be treated, the hazardous substances can be removed and a large proportion recycled rather than sent to landfill.
The council’s executive board member for the environment Councillor Haydn Jones said: “There are now more ways than ever to give your electricals a new lease of life, as well as being recycled into something new, they can also be donated to a good cause, for example, the British Heart Foundation have a furniture and electrical store in Llanelli where your old items can be reused and sold to raise vital funds.”
Your old electricals can be taken to the county’s Household Waste Recycling Centres at Trostre (Llanelli), Nantycaws (Carmarthen), Wernddu, (Ammanford), Llangadog and Whitland.
For further information call Carmarthenshire Direct on 01267 234567 or visit www.carmarthenshire.gov.uk
Pictured recycling their old electricals with council recycling/waste minimisation officer Karen McNeil are County Hall staff Sara Mair Williams and Terence Evans.
Picture: Jeff Connell.
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