Basingstoke residents have been going green this month with a new recycling initiative being trialed throughout the town.
This July, Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council teamed up with specialist recycling company WeCollectWaste to try out a new program, offering Basingstoke the opportunity to recycle old electrical equipment.
Up to 70% of electrical waste is not recycled properly and can disappears into landfill where is can poison the environment.
Company chairman, Peter Hunt, said: “A lot of electrical waste is lost in the sense that we don’t know where it’s gone - it’s not been recycled through approved facilities. So the whole purpose of this trial was to chip into that 70% and it has had some success. Nationally it should be thousands of tonnes which is quite encouraging.
Residents from the area have been depositing all types of electrical waste at reception points in Tesco's car park (Where) and the company has has been offering an online service for the collection of large items directly from households.
Mr Hunt said: “Basingstoke residents have had two services, one where they bring their electrical waste to us and one where we go and pick it up from them, and in both cases it’s been very encouraging. From a customer satisfaction point of view, we’ve heard nothing but positives.
“Householders in Basingstoke became very aware of the trial very quickly. On our first Sunday we were getting people turning up with items straight away. They seemed to understand exactly what it was about and they were bringing the right items for recycling. So the awareness was encouraging”
The programme was jointly funded by the council and the company. Operations Manager Pam Hudson said as the trial campaign has been a success and they are working with the council to expand the scheme and make it a permanent fixture for the town.
She said: “The next step forward for us is to starting work with the council and see how we can move forward and how they can support what we are trying to achieve and how we can try to help them in achieving their EU target.”
