As part of International E-Waste Day on 14 October, Material Focus is bringing back ‘The Great Cable Challenge’.
Material Focus is launching a nationwide campaign aimed at tackling the millions of cables and other old, unwanted electricals sitting idle across UK households.
This Autumn, Material Focus is calling on households, local authorities, retailers, and community projects across the UK to take part in the challenge, and help stop valuable copper from going to waste.
International E-Waste Day (IEWD) is a global campaign to highlight electrical waste, which is the fastest-growing waste stream in the world, and in the UK.
First launched for International E-Waste Day 2024, the Great Cable Challenge brought together 200 organisations that ran collections and held events to help people recycle their old cables and electricals.
Organisations like Curry’s, B&Q, Gumtree, Ecotricity, Virgin Media O2, and 98 local authorities all encouraged their employees, customers and residents to recycle their cables.
By recycling just one cable, we can all help reclaim valuable materials like copper and see how easy it is to make a positive impact.
According to Material Focus’ research, the average UK household is holding onto and binning 22 cables.
Each of these cables contains valuable, critical and finite materials like copper, which are lost forever when cables and other electricals are thrown away.
Copper is also 100% recyclable and uses significantly less energy than mining for new materials, and can be reused to create anything from phones, transport, clean energy and medical equipment.
Commenting on the announcement, Scott Butler, Executive Director of Material Focus, said: “Almost all of us have old cables stashed away at home – I have a box under my bed of cables I’ve been holding onto ‘just in case.’
“Last year, over 200 organisations joined The Great Cable Challenge and helped save hundreds of kilos of copper from going to waste – proving just how big a difference we can all make – one cable at a time.
“By recycling just one cable, we can all help reclaim valuable materials like copper and see how easy it is to make a positive impact.”
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