Trial light tube recycling service for Kent residents

Residents can take used fluorescent tubes to a household waste recycling centre in each of the two areas. The tubes are placed in special containers bought by Kent and which can contain, depending on the length of the tube, from 900 to 1,800 tubes.

The council has had only to pay for purchase of the containers which are then regularly collected by Manchester-based Mercury Recycling which reprocesses the tubes. At the same time an empty container is delivered.

A spokeswoman for Mercury said that on general the cost to clients for processing the tubes was 30p for each one.

The fluorescent tube recycling in Kent is part of its ongoing War on Waste campaign.

The county has told residents that: “Fluorescent tubes contain toxic mercury powder, so by introducing this scheme we are now able to prevent these potentially harmful materials from entering the environment.”

The facilities were opened by Kirsty Bareham, Kent’s recycling officer, and General Waste, the county’s “War on Waste” mascot. Ms Bareham commented: “Mercury is a heavy metal which can cause harm to the environment. Recycling is environmentally preferable and with the introduction of this scheme we can now divert it from landfill”.

She added: “With waste levels on the increase every year it is important that we recycle as much waste as possible. With the introduction of this new scheme now even hazardous wastes can be included along with the more usual materials such as paper and glass”.
Kent is also expanding aluminium foil collection with the installation of banks in Hawking. But because of confusion over what is made from foil, it has asked residents not to put “metallised plastic eg, crisp and packets in the banks”.