The UK is the world’s second largest producer of electrical and electronic equipment waste; with half a billion items going to landfill each year, it is estimated that by the end of 2024 the UK is expected to top this wasteful table.
However, with a growing number of “fixperts”, the UK is beginning to turn a “throwaway culture” into a refurbish and reuse culture.
David Rosenberg, Service Operations Director at Currys, explained that many of the parts inside appliances and electricals continue to hold their value after your consumers no longer want them.
He said: “All the components are incredibly useful as they can be harvested for parts so we can repair other similar product, or it might be able to be repaired. That’s why we always encourage our customers to trade in or recycle their old tech.”
Mr Rosenberg said that the idea of tech being disposable has gone, he thinks consumers have adopted a new eco-friendlier mindset.
Currys either strips out the reusable parts, dusts off and resells the item or donates it to charity. The average UK household owns approximately 25 electronic devices. Around 20 per cent of electronic devices in the UK are hoarded or stored in households.
The retailer’s Cash for Trash scheme encourages customers to bring in old tech to be reused or recycled and offers them a £5 in-store voucher.
It recreates broken parts for broken vacuum cleaners and rather than replacing a whole TV screen, it has developed ways to replace its smaller broken bars.
ERT reported on the UK governments plans to implement recycling reforms – read more about it here.
Mr Rosenberg added: “All the components are incredibly useful as they can be harvested for parts so we can repair other similar products. Or it might be able to be repaired. That’s why we always encourage our customers to trade in or recycle their old tech.”
For parts that are hard to track down, it uses a cutting-edge 3D printer to replicate them.
