“Hypnocat” will be launching in Mid Sussex to hypnotise local residents to recycle their electricals

PR2389/ED/ED - 21/10/2021

“HypnoCat”, the pink fluffy cat on a mission to hypnotise Mid Sussex residents into recycling their small old electricals, will be arriving in Mid Sussex as part of the Recycle Your Electricals campaign. 

Mid Sussex District Council worked with Material Focus, the organisation behind Recycle Your Electricals, to introduce the kerbside collection service of small electrical items last year. Hypnocat has been launched to remind residents to recycle their broken small electricals as these items are one of the fastest growing waste streams in the UK - there are enough cables hidden in Mid Sussex homes to travel from East Grinstead to Devil’s Dyke 12 times!

Mid Sussex District Council is one of more than 80 local authorities across the UK to participate in the campaign. “HypnoCat'' has been designed to hypnotise the nation into recycling their electricals. He will be issuing a series of rallying calls to local people across radio, social media and on posters including, ‘Humans of Mid Sussex, don’t bin them, recycle your electricals’. Keep an eye out for the campaign messages across the Council’s social media channels.

Scott Butler, Material Focus, Executive Director, said:

“Small old electricals are one of the fastest growing waste streams, and we are throwing away valuable materials that are lost forever. These small old, unwanted electricals contain 75% of materials that can be recycled or reused, including precious metals like gold, silver and copper. HypnoCat, our messenger for the campaign, will be providing step-by-step information on how to reuse and recycle broken electricals. We want everyone to know that all broken electricals - that’s everything with a plug, battery or cable - can be recycled.  We are delighted to be working with Mid Sussex District Council and are calling on residents to stop throwing away their broken electricals, and instead put them in a bag ready to be recycled.”

Councillor John Belsey, Cabinet Member for Environment and Service Delivery said:

“We are delighted to be participating again in the Recycle Your Electricals campaign.  We are proud of the fact that our area already provides recycling facilities for most broken small electricals and batteries through our kerbside collection service and our website provides full details of the items we can collect. We have joined this campaign to make sure that we further promote the importance of recycling electricals to more of our residents.” 

The Recycle Your Electricals Campaign is making recycling small old electricals easier than ever before by providing an information hub for the UK on how to recycle electricals, and a postcode locator with details of over 3,000 recycling, repair and reuse points across the UK.  In Mid Sussex District your kerbside collection service is just one option for recycling small electricals. Other recycling facilities, including local Recycling Centres, can be found using the postcode locator. 

ENDS