New £2.5 million funding opportunity to support improvements in collecting small household electricals for recycling

Material Focus, the not for profit organisation leading the UK’s Recycle Your Electricals campaign, has launched a new £2.5 million funding opportunity to make it easier for UK households to recycle their electricals.

WEEE funding opportunity

The new Electricals Recycling Fund provides an exciting opportunity to offer collections of electricals to millions more households and to test creative, practical and scalable new methods for collecting electricals that could produce significant environmental benefits in the future.

The fund is seeking applications from a range of organisations including: local authorities, waste collection authorities, waste contractors, reuse organisations, non- profits, producer compliance schemes, retailers and start-ups.

WEEE funding for local authorities

REPIC is calling on local authorities to consider applying for funding. To add either household electrical collection services to existing infrastructure where this is practical or to explore new innovative methods of collecting small household electricals for recycling.

Louise Grantham, Chief Executive of REPIC, commented: “Electrical products are an essential part of everyday life, they include anything powered by a plug and/or battery. There are many different types of electrical products, from televisions, computers, games consoles, mobile phones and home appliances such as toasters, fridges and cookers, to industrial machinery.

“The biggest challenge we face in the UK is around the responsible recycling of small electricals, including kitchen and personal care products and technology products such as mobile phones, laptops, headphones and USBs and memory cards – our recent consumer survey revealed that a combined 39.3 million IT devices – which equates to the equivalent of 1.4 unused IT products per household – has the potential to be passed on or recycled.

“These products can contain valuable materials including gold, silver, copper, platinum and aluminium, or rare earth materials, which are often used in smartphones, such as neodymium and terbium. This means that when we keep hold of them, or dispose of them without recycling them through the right channels, these precious materials can be lost forever.

“We look forward to working with local authorities to identify new and innovative solutions that will benefit from this available funding to help increase the reuse and recycling of small electricals to ensure successful recovery of materials for further use.”

WEEE funding deadline

Expressions of interest need to be submitted online by 31^st January. For more information on the fund and how to apply, interested parties should visit: https://www.materialfocus.org.uk/partnerships-with-material-focus/electricals-recycling-fund/