Council reduces WEEE banks after collection boom

Cherwell district council in north Oxfordshire is phasing out the use of deposit banks for waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), due to the success of its kerbside collections of the waste stream.

According to Cherwell, the initiative has seen some 46.5 tonnes of electrical goods collected for recycling since its inception, leading to the decision to reduce the number of dedicated bring banks it offers to residents from 18 to six- which it says will save it around 7,500 per year.

The local authority rolled out the scheme for small unwanted electrical items in March 2013, offering householders the opportunity to have small WEEE items such as hairdryers, mobile phones and mp3 players collected from the kerbside.
Items collected for recycling through the scheme are processed at Sims Recycling Solutions WEEE reprocessing facility at Daventry, Northamptonshire.

Councillor Nigel Morris, lead member for clean and green, said: As a council, we understand that if we want people to recycle we need to make this process as convenient as possible for them. We are always looking at what items can be kept out of landfill and how we can encourage people to do that.

Since we introduced kerbside collections this has made recycling electrical goods even easier for our residents and saved them a trip to the bring bank. As such, these electrical banks are becoming surplus to requirements so we will be taking them away to find a more suitable and cost effective use for them.

Savings

The 7,500 financial savings enerated from a reduction in electrical bring banks will be made through reduced cleaning and maintenance costs. Notices are due to be placed on the affected banks alerting residents to the changes and those living within the vicinity will receive pink plastic bags for their electrical items to remind them of the kerbside collection service.The banks will be taken away throughout November by the councils environmental services team and will be cleaned and repainted to be used for other materials.

Cherwell is the latest in a growing number of councils offering kerbside collections to residents following the launch of a similar scheme by Bath & North East Somerset, which received funding from the governments 250 million weekly waste collection fund (see letsrecycle.com story).

Other councils, including Woking, Swale and Surrey Heath councils have established collections of small WEEE items through funding from the WEEE Local Project Fund, set up under the Distributor Takeback Scheme to support WEEE recycling initiatives (see letsrecycle.com story).