The team from the Recycle Your Electricals campaign was invited to take part in this year’s COP26 global climate summit, in Glasgow.
As part of its involvement, Recycle Your Electricals is displaying a series of images taken by award-winning photographer Gregg Segal. The four bird’s eye view pictures illustrate the huge amount of unwanted electricals each UK household has hoarded in their homes.
Working with Mr Segal, Recycle Your Electricals hopes to surprise and inspire households to start reusing and recycling old electricals.
The photos are on display in the Blue Zone at the event, alongside information panels explaining the amount of CO2 emissions that could be saved if we were to recycle our electricals – a huge 2.8 million tonnes of CO2, the equivalent to taking 1.3 million cars off the road.
The picture accompanying this story shows Rupert, a tech collector, with his three children. The photographer focused this image on the huge number of cables in the UK. There are 138 million cables hoarded in the UK – enough to go around the Earth five times.
Once COP26 is over, Recycle Your Electricals will be looking for a venue to display its life-size photos. Please contact hello@materialfocus.org.uk if you are interested in displaying these images.
During COP26, the Remade Network and Material Focus are also encouraging Glasgow residents, COP26 delegates and businesses to donate unwanted electricals at Remade Network’s pop-up tech drops around the city. The aim is to prevent at least 500 electricals, weighing a tonne, from going to landfill during COP26.
Ten community groups and businesses are taking part in the scheme by hosting a pop-up ‘tech drop’. If you are in Glasgow and want to find your nearest pop-up tech drop, please visit www.recycleyourelectricals.org.uk.