Some of the charity shops round here do take VHS tapes, but they sell them for e.g. 50p each, & I am sure it can't really be economical to stick price labels on them, take up shelf room with them, etc.
There seem to be a few places that will recycle them (e.g. tapesuk.co.uk (http://www.tapesuk.co.uk/acatalog/Tape_Disposal.html)) but I suspect you will end up paying for the service.
I have seen various suggestions for 'upcycling' them into tables (lap table (http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-lap-table-with-VHS-tapes/), coffee table (http://www.materialicious.com/2010/08/a-coffee-table-made-of-92-vhs-tapes.html)) or crocheting the tape into bags etc etc but these do seem a bit silly, they're just turning unrecycleable tat into different unrecycleable tat.
(I confess I did throw a boxful of home-recorded videos away a while back, after failing to freecycle them and deciding we didn't need a tacky plastic coffee-table made of VHS tapes. I think sometimes we have to admit that these things are sunk costs, i.e. the waste has already happened when the thing was made.)
VHS tapes
There seem to be a few places that will recycle them (e.g. tapesuk.co.uk (http://www.tapesuk.co.uk/acatalog/Tape_Disposal.html)) but I suspect you will end up paying for the service.
I have seen various suggestions for 'upcycling' them into tables (lap table (http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-lap-table-with-VHS-tapes/), coffee table (http://www.materialicious.com/2010/08/a-coffee-table-made-of-92-vhs-tapes.html)) or crocheting the tape into bags etc etc but these do seem a bit silly, they're just turning unrecycleable tat into different unrecycleable tat.
(I confess I did throw a boxful of home-recorded videos away a while back, after failing to freecycle them and deciding we didn't need a tacky plastic coffee-table made of VHS tapes. I think sometimes we have to admit that these things are sunk costs, i.e. the waste has already happened when the thing was made.)