The waste fridges will be collected from householders when they buy a new fridge. It costs the Currys customer 15 to cover expenses for the service. After the old fridges have been collected by Currys' delivery service they are taken to the delivery centres. The fridges are collected from the centres and taken platforms by Coopers Wholesale Ltd who have a fridge recycling and refurbishment facility in Dorchester. Because of the national scale of the scheme the fridges will be taken to local recycling facilities to ease the logistics.
Dean Jenkins, export manager for Coopers Wholesale, said: “We are very pleased to be working with Currys, but its early days yet as to see the uptake of the scheme by customers. It gives the customer the option of having their old fridge taken back on delivery of a new one but at the moment they are being charged for this service.”
He added that Coopers are glad to be working directly with a retailer in addition to their work with local authorities. “We concentrate on refurbishment and re-use and from that point of view it is better if the fridges have not gone through so many hands and have been handled properly.”
Currys halted its fridge take back two years ago when EU regulations came in regarding the careful disposal of CFCs. In 2001, Currys recycled approximately 300,000 units and are expecting to handle around the same number this year.
A spokesperson for Currys denied that the reinstatement of the companies' fridge take back is in direct response to Comet reinstating their scheme earlier this month (see letsrecycle.com story). They said: “We have been monitoring the situation for a while and we have been keeping our eyes open for an opportunity to reinstate the take back.”
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