Since the service began in April 2012 over 9,700 collections have taken place, resulting in 467 tonnes of WEEE being collected - the equivalent of 101 African elephants!
The innovative service, which will continue to run through 2014, brings free recycling for waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) to thousands of households across north London. The free kerbside collection service aims to increase waste electrical recycling tonnages and divert the material from landfill by making recycling more accessible for residents who do not have access to their own car in addition to.
The free doorstep collection allows residents to recycle any electrical item, from kettles to fridges, TVs to toasters, residents are encouraged to recycle electrical items both large and small. As part of the initiative NLWA and DHL also ran a questionnaire competition about waste electrical recycling. For every questionnaire that was returned £1 was donated to the Children’s Air Ambulance charity, raising a total of £600. Vernon Rodriguez from Islington was the winner of the competition, receiving £500 worth of Love2Shop vouchers.
Vernon said: “Through this campaign I learned how easy and important waste electricals is, I really hope that all residents in north London take advantage of all the different ways to recycle their old electricals.” All residents living within the boroughs of Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Hackney, Haringey, Islington and Waltham Forest are eligible to use the free service.
In Haringey the WEEE collection service runs alongside the other collection sites in the borough run by Veolia and Haringey Council where you can drop off items such as books and clothes. For more information go to www.haringey.gov.uk/recycling-a-to-z.