A new website for gadget recycling called MirrorGoGreen is making it easier to dispose of our old phones, laptops, sat navs and MP3 players.
Why are these websites so important? Every year £1.2 million tons of electronic waste is disposed of in the UK. This is enough to fill Wembley Stadium six times. Experts say that by 2012 all landfill sites in the UK will
be completely full unless we start making changes.
In response to this growing problem the campaign ‘Recycle Now’, which is backed by the government is encouraging us to recycling more. Lara Underwood from Recycle Now says: “Each of us accumulates three new electrical items a year on average, or 173 million nationally. But we find it harder to let old items go, as only one in five of our small electricals gets recycled.”
So how do you know if something can be recycled or not? Recycle Now says that basically if it has a plug, uses batteries or needs charging up it can be recycled.
Things like mobile phones, kettles, games consoles and even power tools continue valuable materials that should be re-used such as copper, iron and gold.
Debbie Godfrey, from recycle-more. co.uk, says: “By recycling we can help stop the depletion of precious metals and other materials and reuse components that would otherwise end up in landfill.”