e-Waste Warriors

Media Release, W/C (10/03/25)

Kent students urged to donate, repair or recycle their electricals via new project, e-Waste Warriors

e-Waste Warriors, organised by Kent County Council unveils its plans for a schools-based electrical recycling, repair and reuse project across Kent. The project launched on 10th March 2025, with the hope that over 240,000 students and 150,000 households in the local community will get behind its drive to donate, repair or recycle their electricals.

Over a period of 12 months, e-Waste Warriors will host repair workshops, create electrical collection competitions amongst schools, provide collection bins across Kent, and deliver talks in schools across the county.

This is one of over 60 UK projects funded by Material Focus, the not for profit leading the Recycle Your Electricals campaign, who have provided £50,000 to support this project. e-Waste Warriors are joining other projects around the country in making it easier for 10 million UK residents to recycle their electricals.

Launched during British Science Week (7th to 16th March), e-Waste Warriors will initially work with a minimum of 24 schools, starting with five in the Maidstone area. Each school will receive two collection bins and be encouraged to participate in activities such as Team Repair workshops which nurture STEM interests, repair skills, and sustainable mindsets, by teaching children how to fix broken electronic gadgets. Competitions will be held with prizes for the schools who recycle the most electricals (in weight) and repair the most items.

Once collected, repaired or reusable electrical items will be donated to local charities or sold in one of the reuse shops at the Allington and New Romney Household Waste Recycling Centres, with profits donated to local charities. Anything that can’t be repaired will be recycled safely and discarded appropriately.

Schools and students will be made aware of how and where they can repair and recycle their electricals through information on leaflets, eye-catching posters featuring HypnoCat, and emails to parents. Keep an eye out for HypnoCat, the Recycle Your Electricals mesmerising pink, fluffy mascot, who is on a mission to hypnotise local residents into recycling their electricals.

This project is part of the new 2025 funding for the Electricals Recycling Fund where Material Focus has allocated an additional £750,000. The aim of the nationwide Electricals Recycling Fund is to significantly reduce e-waste and its environmental impact by making it easier for consumers to recycle their electricals. The projects that have been funded by Material Focus include a variety of recycling methods, from kerbside collections to more drop-off points in schools, community centres, and bring banks. Overall, there will be over 400 new collection points plus kerbside collections for 3 million residents – together helping 10 million UK residents to recycle their electricals.

Recycle Your Electricals research has shown that 80% of consumers believe recycling is a good thing, and many of us already recycle things like paper and plastic. Research has also shown that most of us have unwanted electricals we want to get rid of. On average there are at least 30 electricals hidden away in drawers in UK homes, a total of 880 million items across the UK – with a simple repair many could be donated or sold to people who could put them to good use. And yet 39% of people bin electricals, rather than recycle or reuse them leading to over 100,000 tonnes of electricals thrown away every year. The aim of these projects is to overcome these issues by making it easier to repair, donate or recycle electricals.

Rob Thomas, KCC’s Cabinet Member for Environment, said, “We are now more connected than ever thanks to technology, but that means more and more people have unused and unwanted electrical equipment and devices that they no longer need. It is essential that we work with schools on this so that we responsibly recycle and reuse unwanted electricals. We know that children are passionate believers in recycling and through this scheme we shall enable them to lead by example and encourage good long-term habits among their families too.”

 “We are pleased to support e-Waste Warriors that addresses the pressing issue of e-waste.” said Scott Butler, Executive Director of Material Focus. “By investing in improved education within schools and across the community, collection and drop-off services and exploring new recycling, repair and donation methods, we are taking a significant step towards creating a more sustainable future by making it easier for 10 million more people to recycle their electricals.”

To find your nearest recycling point search recycle your electricals

The schools chosen to take part in this project will be chosen based on a combination of factors including;  location (to enable efficiency of collections), whether the school has a sustainability lead/climate action plan and size. Those that meet the criteria will be chosen ahead of others. For those that were not invited to be a part of the project, the Council team will try to include them in future projects and details of their school will be forwarded to the Greener Kent Schools programme. Four out of the five cluster locations are in more deprived areas: Dartford, Dover, Maidstone (South) and Thanet.

 If you are a school and interested in taking part in the e-Waste Warriors project please register your interest here. 

About Kent County Council and the e-Waste Warriors project

Kent County Council (KCC) is the local authority for the county of Kent in the United Kingdom. KCC is responsible for providing a wide range of public services to the residents of Kent, including education, transportation, social services, public health, and environmental protection. e-Waste Warriors is a project to engage schools to be leaders of Kent’s circular economy and increase electrical and electronic device reuse, repair and recycling behaviours.

About Material Focus and the Recycle Your Electricals campaign

Material Focus is a not-for-profit organisation whose goal is to stop the nation throwing away or hoarding all their old small electricals. Material Focus is leading the UK-wide Recycle Your Electricals campaign. The campaign is revealing the value hidden in electricals and is making it easier for us all to recycle and reuse the small electricals we no longer need by providing more recycling points as well as providing practical information on how households can recycle.

This project is being supported by REPIC, producer compliance scheme.

To find your local electricals drop off point search here: https://www.recycleyourelectricals.org.uk/