Mobiles and more can be recycled in kerbside collections from this month

MOBILE phones, vapes, wireless earphones and more can be put out for kerbside recycling collections in Wiltshire from this month.

From June 5, Wiltshire Council has confirmed small, rechargable electricals can be collected as part of the Let’s Sort It! campaign.

The items can be left out as part of the usual fortnightly recycling collection.

Items that will be accepted include:

• MP3 players

• Electric toothbrushes

• Shavers/trimmers

• All vapes and e-cigarettes

• Smart watches

• Mobile phones

• Digital cameras

• Charging devices/power banks

• Wireless earphones

Residents can place the items in a carrier bag next to their blue-lidded bin - not inside it.

However, textiles and shredded paper will no longer be collected for recycling via the kerbside scheme, the council said, as reusing textiles ‘has become increasingly difficult’.

Shredded paper can be composted at home, taken to a household recycling centre, or put in the general household waste bin for energy recovery.

Cllr Nick Holder, Wiltshire Council’s cabinet member for waste, said: “We are always looking at ways we can help to achieve our aim of supporting residents to recycle as much as possible and protect the environment, as stated in our Business Plan – and kerbside collections of small rechargeable electricals will help with that.

“We live in a tech age and we’re sure many homes are littered with old and unused or broken rechargeable electrical items that are clogging up drawers and cupboards.

“As long as they are no bigger than a typical shoe box, we’ll happily take those items away to safely recycle them into muchneeded brand new equipment.

“We hope people understand why we’ve had to remove the option of putting shredded paper and textiles into their recycling bins. These types of items were proving to be problematic to recycle so we feel we’ve made a choice that allows us to focus our efforts elsewhere.

“We thank everyone for their continued support and efforts to recycle, we’ve already had a tremendous response to our Let’s Sort It! campaign and our battery collection service. It demonstrates that people are committed to doing what they can to help us sort it.”

For more information on the council’s recycling service, log on to www.wiltshire.gov.uk/ recycling.