O is also for Old Gadgets...

What do you do with old gadgets if you get new ones for Christmas?

Lets face it, we all love gadgets for Christmas, but whether you get a new smartphone or a plasma screen TV, you will probably have an old piece of equipment that you need to dispose of.

However, research suggests that many of us do not know how to offload our old and unwanted electrical goods in an environmentally suitable way.

in the UK throw away around a million tonnes of electrical items every year. Last year 38% of people said that they had disposed of a large electrical item such as a fridge and 44% had disposed of a small item such as a kettle or hair straighteners within the previous 12 months.

However, more than a third of people (35%) say they don’t know where to take electricals to be recycled, and the same percentage believe electrical goods can’t be recycled.

D A Woolgar tips are

• Ask the retailer where you bought the product if they’ll take products back;
• take small electrical appliances to your local civic amenity site; Tidy Tip
• arrange for your local authority to collect larger electrical equipment (fridges, washing machines etc) – some authorities provide a free service and others charge;
• arrange for an electrical retailer delivering new equipment to take away the old appliance;
• contact your local community reuse scheme to find out if they accept electrical items.

Please don’t just chuck it in the bin, it just ends up un landfill… have a look, if the equipment has a wheelie bin sign on it. Its means you cant chuck it in there…


Twinkle Twinkle chocolate bar
Santa drives a rusty car
Press the starter
Press the choke
Off he goes in a cloud of smoke !