‘If It’s Old, Broken or Obsolete — Recycle It’: Appeal to Leitrim households

Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Ireland has called on the people of Leitrim to recycle more electrical waste.

According to figures from last year, consumers in Leitrim recycled 168 tonnes of electrical and electronic waste.

An average of just 4.8kg of household e-waste was recycled per person in Leitrim, making it the worst-performing county in Ireland for electrical recycling, according to the latest WEEE Ireland Annual Report.

The national average stood at 9.5kg of electrical waste per person, at a time when Ireland’s appetite for electronic devices has soared — with household electronics sales jumping by 75% over the past five years.

“People in Leitrim have contributed to e-waste recycling every year, with 168 tonnes of electrical waste collected in the county in 2024, and we want to encourage that trend upwards,” said Leo Donovan, CEO of the non-profit organisation WEEE Ireland.

“A total of 4.8kg of e-waste was recycled per person in the county last year – well below the WEEE Ireland collection area average of 9.5kg per person.”

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Currently, recycling facilities in Leitrim are limited, with only two centres accepting electrical waste — one in Manorhamilton and another in Mohill, according to the WEEE Ireland website.

Meanwhile, the European Defence Ministry has said that Europe “urgently” needs to curb its dependence on Chinese critical minerals.

These critical minerals, found in old or unused electrical equipment, are essential for the production of heat pumps, wind turbines, EV chargers, servers, smartphones, and defence equipment.

Last year, Brussels passed the Critical Raw Materials Act, designed to boost domestic production, diversify imports, and promote recycling. Under this plan, the EU aims to meet 10% of its demand through domestic extraction, 40% through processing, and 25% through recycling.

WEEE Ireland is pushing for more critical minerals to be recovered and recycled, as European statistics warn that the continent’s e-waste mountain hides around one million tonnes of critical raw materials (CRMs) every year. These materials include aluminium, copper, lithium, and nickel.

“Most Irish adults recycle their old electronics because they care about the planet — but few realise just how important it is for us to recover the critical raw materials from those discarded devices. Irish consumers are currently only recycling three end-of-life electrical items for every ten purchased, so the potential impact of recycling is immense,” said Mr Donovan.

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“Every old and broken phone, hairdryer or game controller tucked away at home contains critical raw materials that the EU desperately needs to be less reliant on China.”

“Europe’s e-waste is now being called the new oil, and Ireland’s contribution to that well of resources can either sit gathering dust or be mined responsibly for a circular future … We’re urging everyone — if it’s old, broken or now obsolete, recycle it.”

“A concerted effort to collect and recover could extract hundreds of tonnes of reusable metals from obsolete gadgets and appliances.”