Children and staff are invited to bring in their broken or unwanted electrical items, from home and help their school win prizes. The school which collects the highest weight per head of student during a week period will win a prize of £500 sponsored by Veolia Environmental Services. There is also a 2nd prize of £200 and a 3rd prize of £100, both offered by Arbitel Recycling.

The items can be any size, battery powered by a cable or by batteries, such as laptops, mobile phones, kettles, toasters and will be collected via a designated large pink recycling bank.

Items will be collected and recycled by local company Arbitel Recycling, based in Shrewsbury.

The initiative has been organised by Veolia Environmental Services in partnership with Shropshire Council and Arbitel Recycling.

The competition is an excellent opportunity to raise awareness of the importance of recycling waste electrical items among young people and will help precious metals to be recovered and not ending up in landfill.

Councillor Mike Owen, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet Member responsible for waste management, said:

“We are delighted to be working in partnership with Veolia and Arbitel to help local schools to recycle their electrical items. I hope that this will inspire young people in Shropshire to reduce, re-use and recycle their electrical items and that this will help to raise awareness of environmental issues generally. “

Alistair Brown, Arbitel Recycling’s Business Development Manager, said:

“We look forward to working in partnership with Veolia Environmental Services and Shropshire Council on this project, helping to educate the schools and pupils throughout Shropshire on their awareness of WEEE recycling, and helping encourage schools to recycle their WEEE, in turn supporting the continued drive in recycling innovation and job creation within the local economy.”

Clement Gaubert, Veolia Environmental Services’s WEEE Scheme Manager, said:

“We are delighted to work with Shropshire Council on this initiative. We believe the competition will be a great success and help raise awareness among the young people about the benefits of recycling their electrical waste.”