Householders in County Kildare urged to tackle hoarding of electrical waste

Householders in County Kildare are being urged to make recycling of household electrical waste a new year resolution for 2024. 

According to research conducted by iReach, 84 per cent of Irish households containing an average of 15 to 20 broken or unused electrical items in their home.

To encourage people to recycle their electrical waste, a national awareness campaign is being launched today by Minister of State with responsibility for Public Procurement, Ossian Smyth.

The 'Recycle your Electrical Waste for Free!' awareness campaign aims to inform and educate people on what items can be recycled. and to also advise them of the multiple civic amenity sites and participating electrical retailers across the country.

Commenting on the announcement, Minister Smyth said: "I am delighted to launch this national awareness campaign today, to remind everyone that they can return their electrical waste for free recycling at hundreds of drop off points across the country.

"This campaign is a collaboration between the government of Ireland, MyWaste.ie and the two national compliance schemes ERP Ireland and WEEE Ireland.

"It demonstrates our commitment to work together to raise public awareness of the importance of responsible recycling of electrical waste."

He concluded: "Electrical products contain valuable raw materials, and recycling these materials will help Ireland to transition to a circular economy, where waste is minimised."

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FINDINGS

Consumer research comprising 1,000 respondents was undertaken by iReach on electrical waste within homes in Ireland.

It demonstrated that 30 per cent of Irish households are storing old, broken or unused electrical items in garden sheds, while 25 per cent hoard them in drawers and 16 per cent keep them in the attic, rather than recycling correctly.

WEEE Ireland, Kildare’s designated Compliance Scheme Operator for electrical waste, reports that people in Kildare have contributed greatly to the nation’s electrical waste recycling every year, with 1,038 tonnes of e-waste collected in the county during 2022.

5.3 kilograms of waste was recycled per person in Kildare in 2022, falling short of the national average of 10.33kg per person. 

Leo Donovan, CEO of WEEE Ireland, said: "For every 10 new small electrical products sold in Ireland last year, only four are eventually coming back through the Irish approved e-waste recycling system when they reach end-of-life. 

"Ireland has performed exceptionally well in recycling our larger household items such as fridges and washing machines... we now need to extend that great effort to the smaller electronic items that end up languishing in our homes forgotten about or worse still, binned."

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Mr Donovan continued: "It is vital to remind everyone that old and broken electrical items with a plug, battery, or cable contain valuable components that can be given a second life through recycling. 

"You can easily return these items for free recycling at your nearest civic amenity site or participating electrical retailer."

To learn more about electrical recycling, you can visit MyWaste.ie and to locate your nearest free recycling drop-off point on their interactive map at www.mywaste.ie/waste-service-locator/.

Pictured from L-R Sienna Lavery (Age 10), Minister Ossian Smyth and Leo Donovan, CEO of WEEE Ireland at the launch of 'Recycle Your Electrical Waste for Free!' Campaign. Photographed by Shane O’Neill, Coalesce.