Recycling in Salford

• Printer Cartridge and Mobile Phone Recycling
• Recycling in General
• Composting

Printer Cartridge and Mobile Phone Recycling Scheme

We set up our printer cartridge and mobile phone recycling scheme over two years ago, with help and support from Johnson Recycling Limited.It is a nationwide company based in Lincoln with a branch in Sweden. They re-use and recycle all types of printer cartridges and mobile phones by promoting the idea of setting up collection centres throughout the country under their Collect4 schemes. We set up our scheme under ‘Collect4Community’ with the intention of setting up our own collection centres in and aound Salford and Manchester. We stared off with 3 centres and now we have 46 established centres, collecting printer cartridges and mobile phones. The collected cartridges are either refilled or recycled depending on the condition they are in. Mobile phones are reconditioned and sent to developing countries. If they can’t be reconditioned, then they are broken down into their component parts and disposed of safely.

We do our best to promote recycling and composting and to encourage local people to recycle more. We are very keen on raising awareness around recycling and other environmental concerns through organising environmental open days and community events. Our aim is to get as many local businesses, voluntary and community organisations as possible that are based in the area, to sign up to the scheme so that no printer cartridges and mobile phones from our area would go to a landfill, instead they would either be recycled or reused.

As a nation, we throw away 31 million plastic cartridges and 90 million mobile phones are left unused every year. If we consider the fact that most of the printer cartridges can be cleaned and reused, the scale of how much is being wasted becomes very clear. It is the same scenario with mobile phones. They could be patched up and sent to a developing country, making a huge difference to someone else’s life. Therefore the Trust is looking for setting up more collection centres, from which the printer cartridge and mobile phone recycling service could be provided to as many people as possible, whilst promoting recycling and other environmental concerns in general.

Our collection centres are local businesses, GP surgeries, community centres, libraries, community & voluntary organisations etc. It is very simple and straighforward to become a collection centre. If you want to become a collection centre contact Meral on 0161-737-9918 or e-mail her at meral.mercan-darby@sali.org.uk. Alternatively, you can pop into the shop at 191 Langworthy Road for an informal chat.

We need your help and support to extend the scheme into other areas in Salford and Manchester. Please support our recycling scheme and don’t let your printer cartridges and old mobile phones go to a landfill. Give your local Community Development Trust the opportunity to re-use or to recycle them. Meral Mercan Darby, the Trust’s regeneration officer, manages the recycling project. Please contact Meral at the Trust on 0161-7379918 if you are interested in becoming a collection centre or to find out more about the scheme.

Recycling Competitions

The Trust has organised two recycling competition to date in order to promote recycling in general and to encourage local people to start recycling their printer cartridges and mobile phones. There has been a lot of interest for the competitions from school children, community groups and elderly residents.

The winner of the first competition was a local resident, Vera Boardman. She received a nano I pod. Her husband and their grandson are posing on the left with their lovely dog.

The winner of the second competition was Andrea Perniciano, who works for Hume Library. He received a nano I pod as well. He is posing with the Trust’s regeneration officer on the right, Meral Mercan-Darby who organised the competition.

Recycling in General

Salford City Council provide a free door-to-door collection service for recycling. The council provides households with a free green box and paper sack and these are collected on your normal refuse collection day. The following items can be recycled using the councils kerbside recycling scheme;all food and drinks cans, aluminium and steel, aluminium foil, brown cardboard boxes, corrugated packaging & shoe boxes, clear, green, brown & blue bottles & jars, all plastic drinks bottles, detergent & shampoo bottles only (no chemicals), plastic carrier bags, clothes and shoes, paper and junk mail, newspapers, envelopes and catalogues. Recycling services are also available for low rise and high rise flats within Salford. 

The council provides garden waste recycling services within the selected pilot areas of Salford as the scheme is still being trialed. To find out more about the recycling services provided by Salford City Council, visit their recycling webpage. Alternatively, please find below the contact information for Environmental Services.

Rubbish & Recycling Service: Turnpike House, 631 Eccles New Road, Salford, M5 2SH  Telephone: 0161-909 6500,  E-Mail: environment@salford.gov.uk

Composting

Composting can be described as the nature’s most efficient and oldest way of soil fertilisation and waste disposal. There has been an increasing interest in composting as people are becoming more environmentally aware and conventional waste disposal methods are creating growing environmental problems.

You can compost the following; all your vegetable and fruit peelings, teabags, paper towels, eggshells, your garden waste. Please visit Recyclenow’s website to see how composting works and the process in which your vegetable peelings and garden waste turn into home made compost. 

Please visit the council’s website to get a compost bin. Alternatively you can call the following number 0845 077 0757, quoting reference HCA1 to order your compost bin.

If you are interested in finding out more about composting, please visit the wasteonline’s website. It is packed with useful information and tips on composting and it explains composting in great detail.