Rhondda Cynon Taf Council is making it even easier to recycle your small Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) as you can now BIN 2 SWIM, SPIN or GYM at participating leisure centres across the County Borough.
From broken hairdryers to old table lamps – if it has a plug, battery or cable and it’s smaller than a four-slice-toaster, residents can take it to be recycled on their way to Swim, Spin or use the Gym in RCT.
Many household electrical items contain lithium chargeable batteries – these items are hazardous and should not be put into your kerbside waste or recycling.
All WEEE should be taken to a participating Leisure Centre, Community Recycling Centre or returned to a participating electrical retailer.
Under WEEE regulations there is an obligation on producers and retailers of electrical and electronic goods, that they must ensure processes and collection systems are in place so that old electrical and electronic appliances get reused and recycled, rather than being thrown away.
If electrical items are mistakenly collected as part of the general recycling or waste collection, then there is a risk that they could be pierced by the crusher on the collection vehicle and become unstable. This could lead to the elements, parts or batteries sparking or igniting and causing a fire in the back of the refuse truck – which will need to be dealt with safely and could delay collections.
The SEVEN main Leisure for Life, Leisure Centres across RCT have now been kitted out with bins for you to drop your items and then head to your chosen leisure activity – its win, win for the environment and for your fitness.
The participating centres are:
- Abercynon Sports Centre
- Hawthorn Leisure Centres
- Llantrisant Leisure Centre
- Rhondda Fach Leisure Centre
- Rhondda Sports Centre
- Sobell Leisure Centre
- Tonyrefail Leisure Centre
Each of the centres WILL accept:
- Personal grooming: hairdryers, straighteners, electric toothbrushes and shavers etc.
- Small kitchen appliances: kettles, toasters and blenders etc.
- Technology: radios, CD/DVD players, electronic toys/games, phones, tablets, and cameras.
- Lamps, torches, Christmas tree lights
- Cables and chargers
Please remove batteries and recycle these separately at your nearest participating retailer or Community Recycling Centre.
The centres WON’T accept:
- Anything bigger than a four-slice-toaster that has a plug, battery or cable.
- Vapes of any kind
- Larger kitchen appliances such as hotplates, air fryers, microwaves, and slow cookers.
Councillor Ann Crimmings, Rhondda Cynon Taf Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment and Leisure Services, said:
“The latest Bin to Swim, Spin or Gym campaign is another example of how we are trying to make recycling as EASY as possible in RCT. WEEE items often end up at the back of a cupboard or on a garage shelf, for when you get enough items or time to make a trip to the tip – but now you can save yourself a trip to tip and simply drop the items in the WEEE bin, before you keep fit!
“One thing we really need to avoid, is placing any of these items into household waste or recycling. I would urge residents to use the new facilities to dispose of their WEEE items responsibly as they can cause a number of hazardous issues if they are mistakenly collected from the kerbside.
“In addition to the new small WEEE facilities at key Leisure Centres, our Community Recycling Centres help provide daily access for our residents to recycling services. Simply keep your WEEE, large and small, to one side and the next time you visit a centre, drop them in the available recycling bin. Alternatively, all retail outlets that sell electrical items, should have in store recycling facilities available.
”RCT residents have always been great recyclers and I know that they will continue their fight against waste to help RCT meet its target to recycle over 80% of its waste by 2024/25. Keep up the great work RCT”
Please take larger items to one the many local Community Recycling Centre in Rhondda Cynon Taf. The Council’s Community Recycling Centres (CRCs) are open from 8am until 7.30pm (summer opening hours) and 8am- 5.30pm (winter opening hours) and will accept larger household electrical items e.g., washing machine, microwaves, TV’s, fridges etc. Each of these facilities will cater for all recycling needs – a full list of the items accepted can be found at www.rctcbc.gov.uk/communityrecyclingcentres. All centres are staffed, and attendants are happy to advise residents.
More information on recycling your WEEE in RCT can be found at www.rctcbc.gov.uk/WEEE.
Not sure what you can or can't recycle? You can now check online via the searchable A-Z guide at www.rctcbc.gov.uk/recyclingsearch.
For more information on recycling visit www.rctcbc.gov.uk/recycling
Posted on 25/09/2023