Maintain
Look after your electrical appliances to keep them working for longer. Try setting a reminder on your phone for regular maintenance.
- Descale your kettle
- Use a water softener in your washing machine
- Regularly clean filters on vacuums, washing machines and dishwashers
- Regularly oil items that need it e.g. hair clippers
Repair
Before recycling broken gadgets, see if you can get them fixed.
- take small items to a local volunteer-run Repair Café – we are lucky to have a great network of these locally
- if you fancy repairing it yourself, get support at iFixit or check out repair videos on YouTube
Donate
If your item still works but you no longer want it, someone else can use it.
- gift your old smartphone through Community Calling
- pass on your computer, tablet and lots of other IT equipment (working or not) via WEEECharity
- check with your local charity shop whether you can donate it. Charities like the British Heart Foundation (BHF) can now test electrical items and resell them
- arrange a free collection of small electrical items from Anglo Doorstep Collections
- pass on any item with Freegle, Freecycle, Gumtree or local Facebook freebies groups
Sell
You can also cash-in on your unwanted electricals.
- you can get most value by selling peer-to-peer on sites like eBay, Facebook Marketplace, Zapper or Shpock
- you can trade in your old phone and buy refurbished handsets on Compare and Recycle.
Recycle
Can’t sell, repair or donate it? Anything with a plug, battery or cable can be recycled.
If you are buying a new one, electrical appliances can often be handed in in-store or taken away for recycling by retailers, e.g John Lewis, Next, Sainsbury's, Argos. You can also have large appliances like washing machines collected by booking our bulky waste collection, or take them to a Household Recycling Centre. Small electrical appliances like toasters can be recycled at:
- Household Recycling Centres
- Curry’s PC World in-store.
- Tesco Stores in-store
You can find other locations at Recycle Your Electricals.