MORE than 200 old televisions have been collected at Selsey during a West Sussex County Council pilot bi-monthly service for broken or unwanted small electrical items.
Residents brought these in during the second collection service of a wide range of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) at West Sussex County Council’s waste service in Selsey.
As well as the old televisions, more than 500 small items weighing about three tonnes were collected, including more than 50 kettles and irons and a mini jukebox.
And about 35 large items, such as microwaves, were also collected.
In total, the collected WEEE weighed 7.4 tonnes, two-and-a-half-times greater than the 2.94 tonnes collected during the previous event held in November.
This WEEE collection event has provided a unique opportunity to take recycling for hazardous waste items, such as TVs, to the streets and is quite a unique initiative throughout the UK.
The results so far are very promising and could prove very successful for rolling out similar events through the county and nationally, to help achieve tough national WEEE recycling targets.
The success has been put down to the ease of access the service provides to residents and good communications.
A recent national survey found that people tend to hoard WEEE especially small items.
Selsey’s waste service, which is available every Friday between 8am-3pm at East Beach Car Park and currently takes general rubbish and green waste, accepts WEEE every two months.
West Sussex County Council runs the site in partnership with Viridor, which operates the site, Chichester District Council and (PCS) Electrolink.
The service follows the County Council successfully gaining funding for the year-long pilot from the manufacturers and retailers of electrical and electronic waste, who are legally required to fund the recycling of WEEE at their end of life.
All the items collected are sent to a specialist WEEE recycling facility in East Sussex, where they will be dismantled and separated into component materials, such as glass, plastic and metals for onwards recycling and reprocessing.
The project provides additional recycling services to Selsey residents during the digital switch over this year.
County Council Deputy Leader Lionel Barnard, who is responsible for waste issues, said: “I am really pleased at how well this collection event has progressed so far.
“Not only has WEEE been diverted from landfill, but the trial has brought out WEEE that would probably still be stuck in the cupboard.
“We are confident the residents of Selsey will help us maintain our UK pacesetter status in recycling WEEE items by continuing to trial this new service.”
The new service can accept a wide range of WEEE, but not larger items, such as washing machines and cookers or can it accept items classed as hazardous, such as fridges, freezers, florescent tubes and batteries.
For all items that can’t be accepted at Selsey, there are a number of options available:
Chichester Household Waste Recycling Site, Coach Road, Westhampnett, PO18 0NS.
Chichester District Council also offers a chargeable bulky household collection service. For more details visit www.chichester.gov.uk/wasteandrecycling or telephone 01243 534619