Material Focus, which launched the award-winning Recycle Your Electricals campaign two years ago, has published its second annual review, detailing the organisation’s key achievements and what it has been getting up to during 2021.

Formed in 2020, Material Focus has one goal – to stop the UK from throwing away or hoarding electrical items. It has already started to make a big difference and has been working with over 100 local authorities, partners and celebrities to spread the message, through its Recycle Your Electricals campaign, to as many people in the UK as possible.

A few of the highlights of 2021 include:

Funded technical research projects to help identify and bridge gaps in knowledge and barriers to reusing and recycling electricals. Key research findings include:

• 25,000 tonnes of electricals are illegally fly-tipped. 
•  A nationwide kerbside collection service for all UK households could rescue 80,000 tonnes of small electricals per year – that’s 55% of the electricals that households throw away. 
•  £857 million of materials, including gold, silver and palladium, that could be recovered from unwanted electricals each year if the UK invested in advanced recycling technologies.

Making it easier to recycle:

• Doubled the number of electrical and portable battery recycling points on the website locator to 4,654 – making it easier for UK householders to find their nearest recycling point. And nearly a quarter of a million people have used the tool to find theirs – a 235% increase from 2020. · 
• Utilising Material Focus research, and working with a number of experts and celebrities, to deliver the message to the media including; former Blue Peter presenter, Konnie Huq; decluttering queen, Nicola Lewis; fashion and textile designer, Zandra Rhodes; fashion designer, Alexandra Sipa; and popstar Nicola Roberts.
• Worked with 78 local authorities to spread the message through the campaign’s award-winning hypnotic messenger Hypnocat.
• Provided £700,000 funding for 17 reuse and kerbside collection schemes from the Orkneys to the Isles of Scilly.
• Displayed its Hidden Treasures photography series by Gregg Segal at COP26. The images showed the sheer scale and growing challenge of electrical waste hoarded in UK homes.

Click here to read the full report and for more information, contact hello@materialfocus.org.uk.