Waste electricals

Electricals are any item with a plug, cable or battery. Waste electricals are the fastest growing waste stream, and in the UK we produce up to 6 million tonnes of them every year. That’s 9kg per person!

Valuable resources are used to make electricals, such as oil, gold, and copper. If they are not recycled, we lose these precious resources.

Making new electricals contributes to climate change. If we recycled all of them, we would cut as much CO2 as taking 1.3 million cars off the road.

Dispose of your waste electricals responsibly

Waste electricals can’t be placed in your household bins. They can cause fires, damage our recycling machinery and are a health and safety risk to our staff. Choose one of these instead.

• Donate

  You can donate laptops, smartphones and tablets at any Southwark library or the Reuse and Recycling Centre.

  Community TechAid will securely wipe the data and repair them before donating them to people who are digitally excluded.

• Sell

  You can extend the life of your old items by selling them on the second-hand market and making yourself some cash or shop credits.

  Find out more about selling electricals.  

• Repair

  Find someone to repair and extend the life of your old electrical items. You can:

  • search the London Repair Directory
  • bring them along to the next Nunhead Repair Cafe 
• Recycle small electricals

  Anything smaller than a standard microwave can be brought to your nearest electrical recycling bank or the Reuse and Recycling Centre.

  For example:

  • small kitchen appliances like kettles and toasters
  • hair dryers, straighteners and curlers
  • radios, mp3 players, speakers, CD and DVD players
  • small electrical toys
  • small DIY tools like drills and sanders
  • personal items like clocks and electronic toothbrushes

  Find your local electrical recycling bank

  The bank network is expanding! We aim for every resident to be within a 1km of an electrical recycling bank where possible.

• Recycle large electricals

  For anything bigger than a microwave, like fridges and washing machines, you can:

  • book a bulky waste collection
  • bring them to the Reuse and Recycling Centre 

Page last updated: 11 July 2024