The campaign has been launched as small old electricals are one of the fastest growing waste streams in the UK and in the world.
● 500,000 tonnes of waste electricals are being lost through being thrown away in the UK.
● The total number of cables hoarded in UK homes (140 million) could circle the earth more than 5 times
● UK householders are hoarding 527 million small electricals items
"HypnoCat'' will be issuing a series of rallying calls to local people including: 'Humans of Scotland. You will not bin your electricals'. He will also play on his cat's superior powers over humans 'Speaking of bags, go buy me a big bag of catnip' in between the repeated mantra of Recycle Your Electricals. The fun character has been designed to build on a growing trend and love for bizarre hypnocats. HypnoCat will also be launching in other areas across the UK.
West Lothian's Executive councillor for the environment Tom Conn said: "We are delighted that west Lothian is one of the first areas in the UK to be part of the Recycle Your Electricals campaign.
"Local residents can recycle electrical goods at any of our five centres around West Lothian. For more details, please visit Community Recycling Centres
"We have joined this campaign to make sure that we further promote the importance of recycling electricals to more of our residents."
Scott Butler, Material Focus, Executive Director, said: "Small old electricals are one of the fastest growing waste streams, and we are throwing away valuable materials that are lost forever. In reality, these small old, unwanted electricals contain 75% of materials that can be recycled or reused such as precious materials like gold, aluminium and steel.
"Through HypnoCat and our campaign we will be providing step-by-step information on how to reuse and recycle old electricals. We want everyone to know that all old electricals - that's everything with a plug, battery or cable - can be recycled.
"We are delighted to be working with West Lothian Council and are calling residents to stop throwing away their old electricals, and instead put them in a bag ready to be recycled and take them to your nearest recycling centre."
Although we have become a nation of declutterers during lockdown one in five of us are already decluttering their old unused electricals during this time. Instead householders are focussed on sorting out clothing (65%), books and magazines (47%) and home accessories (34%). And why? We're a sentimental, practical bunch; over a quarter listed sentimental value or nostalgia whilst almost a third keep them in case they want to use them again.
Other domestic hoarding habits revealed that:
● Over a half of a million households have got 5-10 games consoles in their homes against a UK average of less than one per home
● Ever sat on the remote control? You're not the only one; over 3 million homes are sitting on 5-15 of them, compared to a UK average of two per house
● One of the items we are holding onto longest are old unused speakers, with almost 2 million households keeping them for over a decade
● 5.8 million households (21%) are holding onto VHS players
● Similarly, cassette players are still being held on to in 4.7 million (17%) of homes
The Recycle Your Electricals Campaign is making recycling small old electricals easier than ever before by launching an information hub for the UK. A new postcode finder has launched on Recycle Your Electricals (opens new window) with details of over 2,000 recycling, repair and reuse points across the UK with new collection and drop-off points will be added to the site on an ongoing basis.
Share pictures, videos and stories of the electricals that you've collected in a bag prior to placing them at the kerbside or taking them to your nearest recycling point #RecycleYourElectricals #RethinkWhatsPossible #AskHypnocat or tag us on Facebook @RecycleYourElectricals Twitter @RecycleElectric & Instagram @RecycleYourElectricals_
