The Great Cable Challenge
Are you one of the millions of people with a ‘drawer of doom’, full of old, tangled cables? Well now’s the time to do something about it!
To mark International E-Waste Day this October 14th, the Biffa BDR Waste Partnership which serves 345,000 homes across Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham is taking part in Recycle Your Electricals’ Great Cable Challenge.
They are supporting the challenge to encourage people to recycle the millions of cables and other electricals sitting idle across the UK and ensure the precious copper they contain can be recycled and reused.
The Biffa BDR plant deals with non-recyclable household waste and the Manvers facility can handle up to 250,000 tonnes of residual waste a year with over 97% of the waste being turned into energy instead of sent to landfill.
Why take part in the challenge?
Across the UK, we bin and stash away 627 million unused cables - enough to reach the moon and back! This is part of the growing e-waste challenge, which is now the fastest growing source of waste in the world, and in the UK.
According to recent research two-in-five UK homes (39%) keep hold of their small electricals in a ‘drawer of doom’ - our secret, often hidden stashed of unused electricals and broken tech found in many households.
Abi Reid, Community Education Liaison Officer, at Manvers, said “Each electrical cable contains valuable materials like copper that can be reused and recycled.
“By recycling precious resources, we can ensure they are not wasted We know that across the UK too many cables are just sitting idle in drawers when they could be put to better use.”
It’s easy to join the Great Cable Challenge:
- Just bag up your old cables – and any other unwanted electricals
- Use Recycle Your Electricals’ Locator to find your nearest repair, donation or recycling point www.recycleyourelectricals.org.uk
- Save hundreds of kilos of copper from going to waste!