Plug in to recycling

Dec 31 2009 by Kathryn Quayle, Chester Chronicle

Was Santa good to you this Christmas? Have you got a new set of sleek hair straighteners or the latest top-of-the-range mobile phone?

The question is, what do you do with your old, small electical items when you receive shiny new ones as gifts over the festive season.

Whether it’s an old hairdryer in a drawer or an out-dated games console gathering dust in your loft, sometimes it’s hard to part with things which seem too valuable to throw away.

The good news is they don’t have to go to waste, because you can recycle them.

Now is the ideal time to think about recycling to make room for our new Christmas presents – old items can be easily recycled by taking them to the local recycling centre. This will stop them gathering dust in our cupboards and cluttering up our houses.

Research by Recycle Now reveals that, on average, we have about three old, broken or unwanted small electrical goods stored around the home. While residents remember to recycle large electrical items like washing machines when buying replacements, smaller items, like cameras and mobile phones, are thrown away by a third of us.

Remember to take unwanted or old electrical items to your local Household Waste Recycling Centre.