Submitted by Peter Lumb on Tue, 2016-04-26 17:56
20 tonnes of WEEE (Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment) was collected at the event on Sidgwick site last month! The event is organised each year to raise awareness of the need to recycle electronic equipment and to provide an opportunity for local businesses to recycle broken or unwanted equipment for free.
Now in its fifth year, the event is hosted by Cambridge Business Improvement District (BID), Cambridge City Council, European Recycling Platform (ERP), and the University of Cambridge. To date, the five events have collected over 120 tonnes of broken or unwanted electronics for recycling, recovering many tonnes of plastic, iron, copper and other valuable resources in the process. All items collected are treated in the UK to recover the metals and plastics which they contain, and the recovered materials are used by manufacturers to make new products.
This year, the University was visited by ‘Miss Positive’ who promoted the event to staff, students and local residents. The event even featured on Cambridge TV. University staff are encouraged to find out about the ongoing e-waste recycling collection service, while local residents in Cambridge can recycle their e-waste for free at any time. Visit www.cambridge.gov.uk/recyclingpoints to find your nearest recycling bank for small appliances, or household waste recycling centre for larger items, or contact the council on wasteandstreets@cambridge.gov.uk or 01223 458282.
Peter Lumb, University of Cambridge Environmental Coordinator, said: “The UK is the fifth largest producer of electronic waste in the world, with about 26 kg of electronic goods sold per person every year. This means a huge potential waste of resources when electronic devices come to the end of their life. Presently, only 30% (by weight) of this valuable waste is recycled, so we are keen to encourage University staff, as well as local residents, to recycle their e-waste. The event at Sidgwick Site this year provided a great opportunity to do just that, and we’re delighted that in just two days we helped to collect more e-waste than would normally be recycled by 2,500 people in a year!”