What To Do With Old Keys In The UK

Here’s exactly how to recycle or upcycle your old keys in the UK, to help keep them out of landfill.

Whether you’ve got a bunch of redundant keys on your keyring, or a drawer containing old keys without a purpose, you may well be wondering exactly how to dispose of them.

It can be tempting to just chuck them in your bin. After all, keys can feel small and insignificant in the grand scheme of things. However, they do have an environmental impact. Metal takes a huge amount of energy to extract and process, so it makes more environmental sense to keep them out of your bin.

But what do you do with them? Thankfully, you don’t have to consign them to the bin. There are quite a few practical and planet-friendly ways in the UK to give them a new lease of life – either by recycling or upcycling them. Here’s all you need to know.

How To Recycle Your Old Keys

To help keep your old keys out of landfill, here are five ideas to recycle or upcycle them in the UK:

Check If They’re Still Useful

First up, I know it sounds blindingly obvious, but it’s always worth double-checking what those old keys actually unlock. It could belong to a relative, an old workplace, or could be the key to a locked suitcase stored in your loft. Especially if it’s the latter, then that would be a real pain to try and open without the key!

If you can identify its purpose, you can either return it, keep it somewhere sensible (perhaps labelled, so you don’t forget what it’s for), or recycle it if it’s no longer needed.

Donate Them To The British Ironworks Centre

Old redundant keys may feel like the kind of thing that have no value, but some organisations have found clever ways to reuse them.

The British Ironwork Centre in Oswestry in Shropshire, for example, is currently collecting old keys to create a recycled sculpture for Shrewsbury Football Club. They are aiming to collect 1 million keys – so your keys could help them on their way.

If you’re local, and can donate 5 items on your next visit (not limited to just keys), you’ll be rewarded with either free entry or a free coffee.

If you’re not local, it’s worth asking them if they accept donations by post. If so, I would imagine you would have to cover postage. However, it would be worth it to know your keys will avoid landfill and be turned into a permanent statue!

Recycle Them As Scrap Metal

Keys are usually made from brass – a mix of copper and zinc – which is a valuable material that can easily be recycled.

However, just because they are recyclable doesn’t mean you should put them in your household recycling bin. Household recycling systems in the UK aren’t set up to handle them properly, and your keys will probably end up in landfill if you put them in your kerbside bin.

Instead, it’s important that you take them to your nearest household waste and recycling centre (HWRC), that’s run by your local council. The vast majority of HWRCs in the UK have a dedicated metal recycling skip, and keys can go straight in there. Just make sure you remove any keyrings, address tags, and rubber covers if possible.

You can find your nearest HWRC and check what they accept using your local council’s website.

Upcycle Them

If you’re feeling creative, then upcycling could be a great way to give your old keys a new lease of life.

I would say Pinterest is probably your best friend for finding ideas. Lots of people have turned these seemingly useless objects into decorative items – including wind chimes, jewellery, and even key hooks made from keys themselves.

Sell Or Pass Them On For Upcycling Projects

Finally, even if you’re not particularly crafty, then heaps of other people are. You’d be surprised how many people actively look for old keys for their own creative projects.

Some vintage keys, especially ones with unusual shapes, are in demand – particularly by jewellery makers and crafters. Meanwhile, large keys are often sought after for interior decoration projects.

You could try offering them for free on local sharing platforms like Freecycle or Facebook Marketplace. And if the keys are particularly old or interesting, you could list them for sale on auction sites like eBay. Just check the current going price for similar items, so that you’re not over- or under-pricing them.

More Recycling Ideas

Looking for more ways to properly dispose of those hard-to-recycle items? I’m all about finding ways to keep things out of landfill, so here are some more useful guides:

• What to do with old foreign coins
• What to do with old video tapes
• What to do with old Tupperware tubs