Launched to mark Global Recycling Day on 18 March, Long Live Your Tech aims to “educate, support, and help” consumers to make more informed choices when buying and disposing of technology.
The commitment brings together Currys’ existing sustainability initiatives, plus the UK’s “first ever” scheme to offer customers money in exchange for their unwanted tech.
Running until 15 April, ‘Cash for Trash’ calls on UK consumers to take any unwanted electronics to their nearest Currys branch in exchange for a voucher.
Customers receive a £5 voucher as a minimum, though if the tech has a higher trade-in value the customer receives that.
Alongside Cash for Trash, the Long Live Your Tech commitment covers initiatives such as recycling, trade-in, repair, and Currys’ seven-day fix-it-fast ‘Care & Repair’ promise.
Currys says further Long Live Your Tech initiatives will be introduced “in the coming months”.
Longer life
Lindsey Haselhurst, chief supply chain officer at Currys, said: “As the UK’s largest tech retailer, helping our customers enjoy their technology means, as well as assisting them in choosing shiny new amazing tech, we must support them in giving a longer life to the tech they already have.
Currys is making the recycling, repairing, and rehoming unwanted tech so much easier for those customers who want to do the right thing
- Lindsey Haselhurst, Currys
“By bringing together and extending our sustainability programmes under our ‘Long Live Your Tech’ commitment, Currys is making the recycling, repairing, and rehoming unwanted tech so much easier for those customers who want to do the right thing when it comes to e-waste but don’t know where to start.”
‘Perfect storm’
Currys says the UK faces an “e-waste perfect storm” as reliance on technology grows and the nation’s waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) problem “booms”.
As one of the world’s largest producers of WEEE, the UK generates up to 23.9kg per head each year, according to data from the Environmental Audit Committee (see letsrecycle.com story).
Operating online and through 832 stores in eight countries, Currys says it collects 5,500 tonnes of WEEE every month on average in the UK.
In 2020, the retailer collected 62,000 customer products through its trade-in operation and sold 253,000 used and refurbished products. It also says it donated products to the value of £9 million for reuse.
Currys provides a free instore takeback for all electronics and was the “first UK retailer” to offer a free WEEE collection service as part of an existing home delivery service (see letsrecycle.com story).
Disposal
Recent research commissioned by Currys and conducted by market research company YouGov found that UK consumers “struggle” when it comes to the disposal of tech.
YouGov found that one in five (21%) is unaware of how to dispose of WEEE responsibly and almost a quarter (23%) find recycling unused electronics confusing or inconvenient.
Fieldwork for the research was undertaken online between 18 and 21 February and the total sample size was 2,091 adults.
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