Category Archives: News
Material Focus: Recycle Your Electricals
Material Focus: Recycle Your Electricals campaign and funding opportunities.
Almost all of us have unwanted or broken electricals lying around or have considered binning them. In fact, discarded electricals are the fastest-growing source of waste in the UK – and the world – with over 100,000 tonnes binned every year in the UK and a further 880 million unwanted gadgets gathering dust in our homes. That’s an average of 30 per household!
But unwanted electricals aren’t actually waste. These electricals contain valuable materials like copper, lithium and gold which can be reused and turned into anything from solar panels to life-saving equipment.

Recycle Your Electricals: Humans of Scotland!
Material Focus, an independent not-for-profit organisation, is on a mission to ensure the materials inside our electricals are never wasted. Their nationwide Recycle Your Electricals campaign raises awareness that anything with a plug, battery, or cable can and should always be reused or recycled, and makes it easy by pointing you towards your local drop-off points.
It’s super easy – just bag up your unwanted and broken electricals and pop your postcode into Recycle Your Electricals’ Locator to find one of 27,000 donate, repair, reuse and recycling points across the UK. Together, we can save valuable materials from being lost to landfill!
Material Focus offers a range of communication assets to help communities find their nearest recycling options whilst also helping spread awareness on why electricals should never be binned. This includes digital assets as well as posters, leaflets and banners – which can be found here.
Funding Opportunities
Material Focus doesn’t just raise awareness – they also fund real solutions to make electrical recycling more accessible for everyone across the UK, including Scotland.
Through their Electricals Recycling Fund, they’ve supported over 60 projects from Aberdeen to Dorset, supporting kerbside collection schemes, drop-off points in community centres, schools and libraries, and innovative solutions that make it easier for the UK to repair, reuse or recycle their electricals.
Join us at the April webinar! Sign up to our webinar with Eco-Congregation Scotland and the Scottish Episcopal Church’s Net Zero Team on Thursday 10th April at 1pm to hear more about how you can get involved in the Recycle Your Electricals campaign, and help promote sustainability within faith-based communities. Please register for the online meeting link here.
Bronze Award for Abernethy Parish Church
Congratulations to Abernethy Parish Church, who recently received their Bronze Eco-Congregation Award. They celebrated by hosting an open morning at the church exploring theology and sharing practical tips to encourage individual actions. They also planted some Scottish harebells at the front of their church as part of the celebration.
Our assessors commended the energy and enthusiasm of the Eco-Group who have achieved so much. They were also impressed by the careful and considered way in which changes are being made to church grounds and the switch to greener banking and a greener energy provider.
Well done to everyone involved.
Silver Award for Kilbarchan Parish Church
Congratulations to Kilbarchan Parish Church who were recently presented with their Silver Eco-Congregation Award.
The congregation celebrated during their Sunday service with a beautifully crafted cake.
Mary Sweetland, one the Eco-Congregation award assessors who presented the award said “We were impressed with the communication of green initiatives to the congregation and the wider community, and that they had 'Green Champions' embedded in all the six teams of the Kirk Session, who promote environmental issues across all areas of the church.”
Well done to the eco committee, the green champions and everyone involved in the congregation who contributed to this award.
Hear the Word; keep the Word; pass the Word on.
Morningside United Church is using the lectionary chosen by ‘Spill the Beans’. It’s an opportunity to write on something different from the RCL. Here’s the draft for Sunday 12th January 2025