What to do with your old electricals

Maintain

Look after your electrical appliances to keep them working for longer. Try setting a reminder on your phone for regular maintenance.

• Descale your kettle
• Use a water softener in your washing machine
• Regularly clean filters on vacuums, washing machines and dishwashers
• Regularly oil items that need it e.g. hair clippers

Repair

Before recycling broken gadgets, see if you can get them fixed.

• check out local repair shops for items like phones and computers, and repair services for large appliances like dishwashers
• take small items to a local volunteer-run Repair Café – we are lucky to have a great network of these locally
• if you fancy repairing it yourself, get support at iFixit or check out repair videos on YouTube

Donate

If your item still works but you no longer want it, someone else can use it.

• gift your old smartphone through Community Calling
• pass on your computer, tablet and lots of other IT equipment (working or not) via WEEECharity
• check with your local charity shop whether you can donate it. Charities like the British Heart Foundation (BHF) can now test electrical items and resell them
• pass on any item with Freegle, Freecycle, Gumtree or local Facebook freebies groups

Sell

You can also cash-in on your unwanted electricals.

• you can get most value by selling peer-to-peer on sites like eBay, Facebook Marketplace, Zapper or Shpock
• you can trade in your old phone and buy refurbished handsets on Compare and Recycle.

Recycle

Can’t sell, repair or donate it? Anything with a plug, battery or cable can be recycled.

If you are buying a new one, electrical appliances can often be handed in in-store or taken away for recycling by retailers, e.g John Lewis or Argos. You can also have large appliances like washing machines collected by booking our bulky waste collection, or take them to a Household Recycling Centre. Small electrical appliances like toasters can be recycled at:

• Household Recycling Centres
• Curry’s PC World in-store.
• Participating Repair Cafes. Check information for your local event
• Recycling banks for small electricals In South Cambs these are in Cambourne (Morrisons car park, near BHF), Melbourn (village High Street car park), Fulbourn (Tesco car park) and Bar Hill (Tesco car park). There are also recycling banks in Cambridge, and a 'roaming' one which visits different villages. The following visits are scheduled - check your parish council facebook page for more details.

The items are sent to a recycling facility in Norfolk where they are refurbished for re-use if possible, and dismantled for recycling if not - see Wiser Recycling for more information. 

Please note that smoke detectors, light bulbs, e-cigarettes (vapes), batteries, paints, chemicals or aerosols are not accepted in these banks. All these items can be taken to Household Recycling Centres for recycling or disposal.

You can find out more about recycling electrical items at Recycle Your Electricals.