Recycle Your Electricals’ annual campaign ‘The Great Cable Challenge’ is back – a national call to action to tackle the millions of cables and other electricals sitting idle across UK households.
The initiative forms part of this year’s International E-Waste Day which takes place on Wednesday, October 14.
To the moon and back…
Research from Recycle Your Electricals reveals UK homes are holding onto and throwing away enough cables to reach the moon and back!
By recycling these cables and other old electricals instead of holding onto them, valuable materials inside these electricals such as copper can be reused and recycled into new items including mobile phones, laptops, smart watches, clean energy and even medical equipment.
Do you have a drawer of doom?
Recycle Your Electricals research also found that two-in-five UK homes (39%) keep hold of their small electricals in a ‘drawer of doom’ – a secret, often hidden stashed of unused electricals and broken tech found in many households.
In fact, over a quarter of these people (28%) said they felt embarrassed, annoyed or frustrated by the small electricals they store in their homes. And one-in-five people don’t recycle their electricals because they don’t know how (21%) or it is too difficult (21%).
With millions of cables cluttering up UK homes, Recycle Your Electricals has published a handy Cable Guide. With 35 of the most used cables, the guide provides easy to use visuals to match cables to their original electricals. If the electricals or the cables are no longer working or they aren’t needed anymore, simply bag up your cables and recycle them.
Recycle electrical items at your local recycling centre
Cllr David A Bithell, Deputy Leader and Lead Member for Environment, said: “We’re happy to add our support to The Great Cable Challenge 2026, and we encourage our residents to take part by recycling their unwanted cables. All three recycling centres in Wrexham have banks specifically for electrical items so you can recycle these items as part of your next visit.
“If you have electricals in good working order you can donate them to the Nightingale House Hospice re-use shop. You can donate to the re-use shop at any of the three recycling centres; just speak to one of the attendants who will show you where you can leave your donated items.”
Take a look at our website to see the list of things that can be recycled at the recycling centres.
Find a recycling point
You can check Recycle Your Electricals postcode locator to find your nearest recycling point. Just enter your postcode to find your nearest repair, donation or recycling point which has over 30,000 locations across the UK.
Find a repair café near you
Do you have any items that aren’t working but could be repaired? If so, why not find a repair café near you!
Lend and Mend
Lend and Mend, based in Tŷ Pawb, host repair cafés, upcycle workshops and other events to help prevent waste. The next repair café takes place on Saturday, October 17, 11am-2.30pm.
While you’re there, you can also check out the brilliant items you can borrow. From sewing machines to camping gear, tools to party supplies, there’s plenty of useful items you can hire for a small cost (compared to what you’d pay to buy the item new yourself).
You can stay up to date by following the Lend and Mend Facebook page.
Repair Café Wrecsam
Repair Café Wrecsam are hosting an event on Saturday, November 14, 11am-1pm at CAIA Park Centre, Prince Charles Road, LL13 8TH.
Bring along your broken or damaged item and the volunteer repairers will try to fix it, for free. You can enjoy a cup of tea or coffee, and chat to your fellow neighbours while you wait.
You can check dates of future events on the Repair Cafe Wales website, or the Repair Cafe Wrecsam Facebook page which you can also follow for updates.
