Category: Collections

Moving Tips – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

On By JMCEIn Awards, Climate change, Collections, Computer Recycling, Dublin, Electronic and Electrical RecyclingLeave a comment

Moving House, Apartment or Office

According to the Central Statistics Office, in 2022, 265,098 people moved home in Ireland, with 29% of movers changing counties and 5% of residents moving to a new property, Dublin city and suburbs was the area with the highest proportion of movers (30%) within or to the area.

Moving home is widely considered one of life’s most stressful experiences. It often appears alongside events like job changes and major life transitions in surveys about stress. There’s a lot to juggle at once — packing, paperwork, deadlines, costs, and the emotional side of leaving a familiar place — so it’s no surprise many people feel overwhelmed.  

They surveyed 2000 people who had moved home over a three year period revealed 61% of those surveyed placed the ordeal at the top of their stress list, so it’s true, moving is stressful. Source: E. ON.

Legal & General conducted a seperate survey related to the motivation and pressure of moving. They report; almost half of respondents (47%) experienced increased stress levels because of moving.  41% of adults experienced anxiety, sleep deprivation (31%) and arguments with their partner (25%). One key stress-inducing factor was time, with 46% of home buyers having to wait between three and five months to complete their move.

Stress Points

Some of that stress might be caused by the fact that removal firms unusually work out the cost for your move by the volume of items that you have to transport to your new location.

Reducing your volume prior to the move should save you money and creates an opportunity to de-clutter through reuse or recycling. In fact, it creates a wonderful opportunity to list and remove items that are broken or unneeded. It’s an excellent motivator to share unwanted items with others or recycle items no longer required.

It’s a good idea to start with storage areas such as the spare rooms, the attic, basement, garage or store in the weeks before your move, as removal teams will want to do a pre-move checklist of your belongings. This helps determine how much stuff needs to be moved and gives an idea of wants involved in moving!

What to Recycle

People are still surprised by the number of objects that can be recycled. Recycling goes way beyond the glass, plastic, paper, and tins that your waste company collects. Commonly recycled items include furniture, clothing, electrical goods, batteries, bulbs, or old toys. home-office equipment, metal cabinets or lockers.  These can all be recycled prior to moving.

2019 moving a cooker
Moving / Recycling Electrical Equipment

Recycled appliances like phones, kettles, cables, dryers, computers, servers or washing machines can be repurposed or their components can be removed and converted into new products.

Recycling allows home movers to clear out old items and reduce the cost of the removal, protect our environment and conserve natural resources. Remember this logic can be applied to moving from any location including an office, warehouse, doctor’s surgery or shop.

10 Moving Tip

Old Storage Heater for Recycling
  1. In the weeks and days leading up to your move, use up perishables including food and cleaning products and recycle plastic containers before your moving date.
  2. All electronics and electrical equipment (e.g. computers, toasters, heaters or kettles) contain some precious metallic elements like gold, silver, copper, and aluminium that can be reused. Recycling these items saves valuable new resources.
  3. Petrol, paint, and oils should be disposed of before moving home. Many removal companies will not move your petrol lawnmower if it is not emptied of all petrol and oil and paint are heavy and will cost you money to move.
  4. Fuel such as coal or oil should be included in the lease, house sale or used well in advance of moving.
  5. Kids’ toys, clothes or bikes can be offered to charity shops, social enterprises, family shelters or housing projects. If damaged they are recycled at civic amenity recycling centres. Some recycling centres accept a range of items manufactured from plastics, metals, and wood.
  6. Following your move, you have lots of packing boxes. The boxes may be supplied by moving company so they can be given back. If not the boxes are most likely to be made from recyclable materials, so they should be able to be added to your paper recycling bin. If you have a large number that will not fit, they can be taken to your nearest civic amenity site.
  7. Take pictures of wire connections on electronic equipment such as computers, printer and wireless router as it will help you set them up at your new home.
  8. Label boxes by room and number them to ensure you have them all on arrival at your house.
  9. Make sure you have lots of help at hand to pack and lift boxes and equipment.
  10. Finally, there may be items that you wish to dispose of but it may not be easy to find a recycler! Here are 10 community-based organizations that can help to reduce your belongings before you move.

About Recycle IT

Recycle IT is an award-winning, not-for-profit, social enterprise established in 2003 to create employment and promote environmental awareness through recycling and reuse. We work in partnership with WEEE Ireland and are authorized by your local authority to provide electrical, electronic and pure metal recycling collections across Dublin since 2007. Recycle IT are fully compliant with WEEE Recycling Requirements and permit details are available here.

For more information about Recycle IT please click here.

Sustainable Business Impact Award Winner 2025

 

 

Resident’s Electrical Recycling Collections – Free in 2026

On By JMCEIn Collections, Dublin, Electronic and Electrical Recycling, Electronic Equipment, Family, NewsLeave a comment

Open for 2026 Enquiries and Bookings.

As we welcome 2026, Recycle IT is inviting residents’ associations, tidy towns groups, and community committees to take the lead in making your estate greener. We encourage associations to organise an early-year electrical and pure metal recycling collection, bringing together householders, families, friends, and neighbours to take part.

By working together as a community, we can significantly increase our electrical recycling rate per person. In 2023, this figure stood at just 9.51 kg per person — roughly the weight of nine electric kettles. Surely, as organised and engaged communities, we can do better than that!

Let your residents’ association be the catalyst for positive change in the New Year. Book a collection early, boost participation across your estate, and help set a higher recycling standard for 2026 and beyond.

With one in eight people in Ireland still dumping small electrical items in household bins we want to help you safely recycle any old, unwanted or unused electrical stuff from around the house. This includes kettles, cookers, TVs, washing machines, games consoles, batteries, phones, computers, metals, and electronic toys; the list really is endless.

Recycle IT work in partnership with Residents Groups across Dublin. Our teams can collect all types of household and small office waste electrical, electronic and pure metal equipment from residents. The collection is door to door, free and our teams collect weekly Monday to Friday.

Presenting Your Recycling for Collection

Once local residents know a collection is scheduled people can easily assemble old electrical, electronic and metal equipment and have it out and ready and out for collection by 9am on collection day. If people need help please do lend a hand to get their items out for colleciton or let our team know in advance?

Items for collection can be placed at the front of your home within reach of the pavement (e.g., in your drive) but not on the pavement so as to block access.

Your electrical waste should not be placed in refuse sacks or covered. Please ensure electrical and metal waste items are easily accessible. If items are hidden behind a locked gate or a parked car, we may not be able to see or collect your items. Our teams will accept electrical and metal waste at no cost once used in your home or small office.

You can click here for a list of items collected (PDF Files for electrical and metal items)

In the case of unforeseen circumstances such as poor weather conditions, vehicle breakdowns, roadworks or other incidents, we may be delayed, but we will do our best to keep groups updated and we will work to catch up throughout the day.

On request, we can enter homes at the ground floor level only. Residents should remain at a safe distance from our team. It is preferable if items for recycling are outside.

Working Together

Our authorised WEEE collections are offered in association with Residents’ Associations. Each group helps by providing details on the number of homes in the area, names of roads, and promotion of the event to householders through social media, email, leaflets newsletter etc. Recycle IT can provide further information on request.

Please note: Today our resident collections are provided free of charge to Residents’ Associations in South Dublin, Dublin City and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown.

About Recycle IT

Recycle IT an award-winning community recycler wishes to build on Ireland’s recycling success story and help increase the 10.9 KG of waste electrical and electronic equipment collected yearly per inhabitant in Ireland. (recorded in 2017)

We are inviting resident associations and community groups including tidy towns to speak with us about arranging a FREE collection in your area over the coming months.

Our team will accept old household electrical items, and office electrical items alongside your garden power tools and pure metal equipment. We can also accept commercial appliances but do call in advance.

Recycle IT as a social enterprise works in partnership with WEEE Ireland. Recycle IT is supported by Pobal, South Dublin County Council and authorized by the National Waste Collection Permit Office. Recycle IT are an active member of Community Resources Network Ireland (CRNI).

To learn more about recycling electrical equipment please call Recycle IT at 01 4578321, email us or visit www.recycleit.ie

Recycle IT Truck

Gaming Consoles – Recycle Safely

On By JMCEIn Climate change, Collections, Computer Recycling, Dublin, Electronic and Electrical Recycling, Family, News, Social EnterpriseLeave a comment

Best Selling

30 years ago, on September 9, 1995, the original PlayStation made its debut in North America, ringing in an era of gaming success for Sony. The chart below from Statista shows, the original PlayStation is the fourth best-selling home console of all time, beaten only by the PlayStation 4, the Nintendo Switch and its own successor, the PlayStation 2, which sold 160 million units over its lifetime. Source: Statista Research Department.

Benefits

Did you know there are benefits to playing videogames? A National Institutes of Health study of nearly 2,000 children found that those who reported playing video games for three hours per day or more performed better on cognitive skills tests involving impulse control and working memory compared to children who had never played video games. Other reported benefits include improved problem-solving skills and logic, increased hand-to-eye coordination, greater multi-tasking ability and faster and more accurate decision-making.

Photo by JESHOOTS.com on Pexels.com

Generally games consoles are devices designed for the sole purpose of playing video games usually at home. A games console is really a computer used to play video or virtual games, on a TV or monitor. Some devices are very portable and are handheld with screens.

Some Facts

Ireland’s total video games revenue was €397m in 2024 and it is expected to reach €503m by 2029. Social and casual gaming (online gaming) totaled €180m in 2024 and will rise to €240m in 2029 with a 5.9% CAGR. A paradigm shift in Ireland’s video games market will come in 2029, when social/casual gaming revenue will overtake traditional gaming (physical gaming on PCs and games consoles)

There are nine console generations, with the current leading providers being Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo with the Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch used to play games like FIFA 22, Farming Simulator 22 and Minecraft. You can also watch Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney Plus on your games console.

Games Console, Controllers and Games – Recycle IT

Games are either downloaded directly onto the device via the internet online store or inserted into the device as a disc or card.

Many game consoles and games are aimed at children There is no official or recommended age for a child to have or use a games console. Video games are given age ratings similar to movies.

In general, using a game console with your children is fun. Adults can refamiliarise themselves with gaming, how new games work and how children are likely to use them. This can be a great way to show responsible and positive use of technology and show your child you are interested in what they do!

Reuse and Repair

After many years of fun, your game’s console may need to be updated with new software or hardware (if possible) or if damaged it can be repaired for reuse. There are several repair options available and they should be considered before saying goodbye to your console.

Saying goodbye isn’t always easy. After all, you likely spent many in-game hours together playing a starring role for your favourite sports team. Your console has likely brought you, your family and friends, many moments of joy and frustration.

However, the time will come to move on to a new console. With new console releases never far away you might consider a replacement. But before you do that, there are some important things that you need to do to stay cyber-safe (and keep your information and payment details safe).

Here are some steps to take before you sell, donate, or recycle your old console:

Games Console and Controller

Today many consoles are backwards compatible. This means that some, or most of the games from your old consoles should work with the new device To save your old games you can back your data up by:

  • Saving your data to an external hard drive.
  • Transferring your data from the old console to the new console by linking via a network.
  • Saving your data to a cloud service for your system.

Your gaming console can have personal information stored. Anything from email addresses to multiple credit card numbers to social media and cloud streaming accounts. If in the wrong hands, this can cause you lots of problems.

You can remove all your accounts from your console. In the setting menu, you can usually delete your credit card information, email addresses, social media links, or linked accounts. For purchased apps, you can sign out and manage your account information in your app settings.

A further option involves resetting the console back to when you first removed it from the box as new. Doing this reset will also make all of the information that was saved inaccessible through the user interface. You can usually do a reset in the settings menu.

Safe Recycling

Now that you have backed up your files and reset your console back to factory settings you may wish to dispose of the device in the waste or recycling bin. Please Don’t

Proper disposal including disposal of cables and chargers is important particularly if you didn’t try the above. Remember is also bad for the environment if you don’t recycle carefully

Games Console

Try the following

  • Reuse your console by gifting it to someone you know.
  • Donate your console to a local youth or community organisation,
  • Resell your device after wiping or destroying the hard disk drive / returning to factory settings.
  • Recycle your console instead of throwing it into the bin.
  • Recycle your console cables and related equipment at the same time!

Because electronics contain many damaging chemicals and reusable parts you should recycle safely at a dedicated e-recycling centre like Recycle IT. If you can’t or don’t wish to wipe the hard disk drive within the console before recycling, Recycle IT can help.

About Recycle IT

Recycle IT, is an award-winning social enterprise offering electrical, electronic and metal recycling services through drop-off and collection. Recycling services are provided in partnership with WEEE Ireland and South Dublin County Council.

Recycle IT is supported by Pobal and Dormant Accounts and authorised by the National Waste Collection Permit Office and the local authorities across the east midlands waste region.

Our goal is to create training and employment opportunities through the provision of waste management services. Surplus earned income is reinvested in operational, and employment-related costs.

For more information on Recycle IT please call 01 4578321, email info@recycleit.ie or visit our website www.recycleit.ie

Recycle IT – Dublin City Social Enterprise Awardee 2025

Eco-Friendly Recycling for Schools and Colleges

On By JMCEIn Climate change, Collections, Dublin, Electronic and Electrical Recycling, Family, News, Social EnterpriseLeave a comment

Recycling Benefits

Educational institutions in Dublin and surrounding areas now have the opportunity to safely recycle outdated electrical, electronic, and metal equipment. Our initiative provides a secure and responsible way to declutter facilities while creating valuable space for educational purposes.”

“It is important for schoolchildren, teenagers and adults to witness electronic recycling, as it helps them understand the value of protecting the environment by reducing electronic waste. Recycling also educates all age groups on conserving resources, preventing pollution, and taking responsibility for the proper disposal of old electronics—contributing to a healthier planet for everyone. This may be the perfect time to involve your students in some positive recycling activities.”

Reducing old electronics keeps harmful materials out of landfills, protecting the environment. When handled by authorised professionals, these materials are safely dismantled and processed using eco-friendly methods.

Mixed IT Equipment

Free Collection Service

Our service is offered free and is dedicated to reducing large amounts of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) which accumulates in classrooms, canteens, stores, and labs over time.

Recycle IT, is a community-based social enterprise, offering a simple and efficient route to recycle unused electrical and electronic items. After collection, items are broken down and recovered materials are processed for use in the manufacture of a new product. Your recycling helps sustain our organization and create employment and training opportunities.

The free collection service helps safely divert e-waste from landfills and makes use of old items that may have been thrown away. The types of items usually collected include computers, kitchen equipment, phone systems, mobile phones, laptops, tablets, monitors, projectors, printers, battery-operated toys, televisions, and radios. Please click here for a full list 

Our team can offer a cost-effective collection to a school further away. The fee charged covers operational costs related to the collection.

Our learning sector collection service is organised as part of our free community collection service. Recycle IT also support WEEE Ireland with collections of batteries from schools around Dublin which in turn supports the work of LauraLynn Children’s Hospice.

During the last 18 months, our teams have worked with hundreds of schools, colleges, and youth training organisations all over Dublin to achieve an overall increase in electrical equipment collected for recycling with a similar trend in 2024.

We are delighted to be in a position to help your staff, students and organisation safely recycle all types of electrical, electronic and pure metal equipment so do email us. Recycling with us directly creates real training opportunities and maintains employment levels within our social enterprise.

Register an interest

Schools, colleges, and trainers of all types in Dublin and the surrounding area are welcome to register an interest: Simply complete a registration form by clicking here or call our team on 01 4578321 Monday – Friday. Once you call or email we can help you plan and schedule your e-waste collection which will help:

School Electronics for Recycling
  • Reduces the amount of waste sent to landfills and incinerators.
  • Conserves natural resources such as water and minerals.
  • Increases economic well-being and creates local training and employment opportunities.
  • Prevents pollution by reducing the need to collect new raw materials.
  • Saves energy.
School Collections Supported by WEEE Ireland

About Recycle IT

Recycle IT is an award-winning, not-for-profit, social enterprise established to create employment and promote environmental awareness through recycling and reuse. We work in partnership with WEEE Ireland and are authorized by your local authority to provide electrical, electronic and pure metal recycling collections across Dublin since 2007. Recycle IT are fully compliant with WEEE Recycling Requirements and permit details are available here.

For more information about Recycle IT please click here.

Mixed Metal Equipment

Recycle IT Recognized for 2025 Sustainability Award

On By JMCEIn Awards, Climate change, Collections, Dublin, Electronic and Electrical Recycling, sustainabilityLeave a comment

Recycle IT Shortlisted for National Sustainability Award

Chambers Ireland recently (22 August 2025) announced the shortlist for the 2025 Sustainable Business Impact Awards. These awards, sponsored by BAM Ireland and supported by the Department of Rural and Community Development, celebrate businesses making a positive difference in communities, the environment, and society.

This year, Recycle IT has been shortlisted in the “Sustainable Impact by a Medium Business” category for its work on community recycling.

Speaking about the awards, Alasdair Henderson of BAM Ireland said the awards highlight “organisations driving positive change through sustainability and social responsibility.”

Minister Jerry Buttimer added that social enterprises and sustainable businesses “play a vital role in improving lives and protecting the environment.”

Una Lavelle, General Manager at Recycle IT stated “Being shortlisted for the Chambers Ireland Sustainable Business Impact Awards is a great recognition of our team’s commitment to recycling and community engagement. The awards highlight our work, open new partnerships, and encourage us to keep delivering positive environmental impact.”

In total, 60 projects from across Ireland have been shortlisted across 12 categories. The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on Wednesday, 24th September 2025.

You can learn more about the awards and those shortlisted with a visit to the Chamber Ireland website, just click here.

About Chambers Ireland

Chambers Ireland is the voice of business throughout Ireland, with 36 member chambers across every major city, town and region of the island. Aligning our strategic priorities with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, our aim is to make places better to live, work and do business

About Recycle IT

Recycle IT is an award-winning, not-for-profit, social enterprise established to create employment and promote environmental awareness through recycling and reuse. We work in partnership with WEEE Ireland and are authorized by your local authority to provide electrical, electronic, and pure metal recycling collections across Dublin since 2007. Recycle IT are fully compliant with WEEE Recycling Requirements and permit details are available here.

Over the last 20 year Recycle IT have happily offered safe electrical and electronic recycling services to households and small and medium size organisations across a range of sectors. We offer our services all over Dublin and in surrounding areas. We are happy to offer cost effective and safe computer, laptop or tablet data destruction for home users and small offices on request.

For more information about Recycle IT please click here.