Residents in Rushcliffe can now place small electrical items on the top of their blue bins from in a new recycling service.
Rushcliffe Borough Council (RBC) is seeking to increase the number of items that be reused and recycled, and is now one of the few local authorities in the county to currently offer the kerbside collection.
Unfortunately, many of the items the authority now plans to collect currently end up being disposed of in the grey waste bin so the new service, which collects Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), is aimed at recycling smaller appliances and all items must be placed on top of the blue recycling bin.
Further plans to potentially introduce kerbside glass and food waste collections could be confirmed in the future. Changes will be made in due course in line with central government’s requirements under the new Environment Act.
Residents should never place the electrical items inside the blue bin under any circumstances.
This list is below and could be extended in the future:
- Kettles
- Toasters
- Irons
- Lamps – must have bulb removed
- Hairdryers
- Straighteners
- Hair clippers
- Shavers
- Electric toothbrushes
- Games consoles
- Digital clocks
- Digital watches
- Remote controls
- Torches
- Calculators
- Laptops and tablets
- Cameras and camera chargers
- Mobile phones
- Radios
The Council’s waste teams will collect the items at the same time or on the same day as the blue bin collection and they’ll be recycled at local contractors where other blue bin waste is sorted.
Residents are advised to fully wipe and remove any data cards from laptops, tablets, cameras or phones before leaving them on a bin to be recycled.
Items with built-in batteries do not need to have these removed before recycling, whilst removable batteries such as AAA, AA and 9V are requested to be left in a separate bag on the top of any coloured bin.
For larger electrical items including microwaves, fridges and freezers please either book a bulky waste collection, or take them to one of Nottinghamshire’s 12 recycling centres where they’ll be separated for recycling.
Cllr Rob Inglis, RBC’s Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Environment and Safety explained why the Council has chosen to introduce the service.
He said: “This is a brilliant new recycling service that could see thousands of smaller electrical items recycled responsibly every year that can contain rare and valuable raw materials.
“We know kerbside glass collections and food waste collections are among the priorities for bin changes for residents and we’ll be introducing these in line with the national changes in the coming years.
“In the meantime, we wanted to make inroads into ensuring ever more items can be recycled whilst ensuring valuable raw materials in smaller electricals are responsibly disposed of, helping our Environment priority as a Council and our Carbon Clever values.
“Please remember to place the small items on top of the blue bin and never place the items in the bin under any circumstances.”