The Great Cable Challenge is a national campaign to encourage residents to recycle their old, unused and broken electrical cables. 

On average, each household in the UK has 15 cables they no longer use. Cables contain valuable, finite resources such as copper that are needed to build the solar panels and wind turbines to support Scotland’s journey to become a net zero nation.

By recycling and preventing these materials going into bins, we can harness the materials we have, and reduce the environmental impact caused by mining for raw materials.

Chair of the council’s Community and Enterprise Resources Committee, Councillor Robert Brown, said: “Bagging up your spare and broken cables, and taking them to your local electrical recycling point, is a big help to the environment.

“We all need to ensure that valuable resources aren’t being binned, and that we are recycling as much as we can.

“Many high street stores and supermarkets offer electrical recycling.”

You can find your nearest recycling locations using the Recycle Your Electricals Recycling Locator.

You can also recycle your electrical cables at any of the six household waste and recycling centres across South Lanarkshire by booking a slot online.”

More details on International E-Waste Day and The Great Cable Challenge 2025 can be found on the Recycle Your Electricals website.