WRAP launches fresh campaign for small WEEE

The event involved WRAP's recycling campaign Recycle Now teaming up with BBC 'Last Choir Standing' finalists Hear Me Now! and The Really Rubbish Orchestra – who play instruments made out of old electronics – to raise awareness of the need to recycle small WEEE items such as toasters and kettles.

According to Environment Agency figures, just 14.5% of the 480,000 tonnes of small WEEE put onto the UK market in the year to the end of June 2009 was collected for recycling – less than half the 30.66% recycling rate for all WEEE achieved in 2008 (see letsrecycle.com story).

And, yesterday's launch, which was focused on encouraging people to use the Recycle Now website to find out exactly what they can recycle and where, was accompanied by research showing that 41% of householders have never recycled an item of small WEEE.

Explaining the purpose of the initiative, which has been backed by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), Recycle Now's Gerrard Fisher said: “Our aim is to inform people in a fun way how and where to recycle their small electricals.

“At Christmas and New Year many of us choose to buy new appliances, or receive them as gifts and don't know what to do with the old ones,” he added.

Last year's Christmas awareness campaign for small WEEE (see letsrecycle.com story), was followed by a WRAP-run pilot earlier this year which aimed to make it easier for local authorities to run their own WEEE publicity initiatives.

Promotional materials used in that campaign have been made available to local authorities on the RecycleNow Partners website although some in the municipal sector have told letsrecycle.com that more help is needed.