Space Waye Recycling Centre, Hounslow (Credit: Get West London.)
The Guardian has offered advice on how readers can recycle their old inkjet printers, following a letter from a reader to the newspaper’s Consumer Champions section.
The letter seeks guidance on how to dispose of the machine in an environmentally friendly way, given that many local charity shops will not accept it, and neither will council kerbside waste collections. To compound the issue, the local recycling centre, in Space Waye, Hounslow, does not offer pedestrian access.
In response, The Guardian’s columnist, Rebecca Smithers, acknowledges that “recycling unwanted printers is less common” that recycling the cartridges for them, and offers tips from various other industry professionals, such as Recycle Now campaign manager Craig Stephens.
Stephens recommends “checking the recycling locator on recyclenow.com to find local recycling points for particular items”, or, failing that, contacting the local authority directly to receive their advice.
The article also highlights a selection of charity shops that do accept electrical and electronic items, such as FARA, and suggests other methods of giving it away such as Freecycle, Freegle and Streetbank.
The London Borough of Hounslow adds that it is one of the few London borough to offer a doorstep small electricals recycling service, but that the reader’s printer was regrettably too big to qualify for this. Further to Smithers’ suggestions, it recommends contacting community centres or schools in the area, “to see if they would like to be gifted these items.”
