More than 11 million toasters are thrown away in the UK every year, according to research commissioned by Recycle Your Electricals.

Consumers across the UK eat 40 million slices of toast a day and the average person eats 291 slices a year, but 11.4 million toasters are chucked away every year – and, of those people who dispose of them, almost half (46%) don’t know how or where to recycle them, or weren’t aware they could be recycled at all. Everything with a plug, battery or cable must be recycled – including toasters.

Ahead of International E-Waste Day (October 14), Material Focus, which is the organisation behind Recycle Your Electricals, has launched a new campaign called ‘Love Your Old Toaster. The scheme encourages people to recycle their electricals and raise awareness of the 5,000 recycling drop off points across the UK.

To promote the initiative, a recycling bank disguised as a giant toaster popped up at the Westfield Stratford City shopping centre in east London recently (September 30 to October 2). The toaster was covered in colourful illustrations of small household electricals, designed by muralist Eloisa Henderson-Figueroa.

TV presenter and consumer advocate, Michelle Ackerley, was the first person to pop her old electricals in for recycling. Actress Joanna Page also joined the campaign, to spread the word through radio interviews and on her Instagram.

In three days alone, more than 360 small household electricals for reuse and recycling were collected – from old and unwanted kettles, phones, cables, calculators, printers, electric toothbrushes and laptops.

The toaster was also on show at Westfield London last weekend (Shepherd’s Bush, October 7-9).

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