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Almost a quarter of waste electrical and electronic equipment
(WEEE) thrown out each year by consumers could be reused,
generating more than £220 million in the process, according
to new research released by WRAP.
The study looked at the potential reuse value for items disposed
of by consumers at household waste recycling centres and via
local authority-run bulky waste collections. It concludes
that there is potential to create high resale value from repair,
refurbishment and open market resale.
“We found that 23% of all the WEEE collected at recycling
centres could have been either sold on straight away, or resold
after repair and refurbishment,” said WRAP’s Lucy Keal, project
manager for products and materials.
“This, in turn, could generate gross revenues of more than
£220 million a year - and even after taking account of the
costs involved in acquiring the waste items and repairing
or refurbishing them, this could still realise profits of
more than £100 million.”
WRAP’s calculations are based on annual totals of 348,000
tonnes of WEEE taken to recycling sites and a further 149,000
tonnes gathered in bulky waste collections.
“As you’d expect, the resale values vary depending on the
categories,” said Lucy. “Smaller items typically have lower
reuse potential, but the proportion that is reusable has a
higher value than other categories.
“Large domestic appliances such washing machines offer
good potential value - from reuse, use of parts or from scrap
- and make up 61% of the resale value from the bulky waste
collections. Fridges and freezers offer particularly good
reuse potential if they’re still working.
“This research demonstrates the crucial importance of promoting
the reuse of WEEE. We’re currently throwing away equipment
that’s in perfect working order, or could be easily repaired
or refurbished for someone else to use. Consumers often assume
it will be cheaper to replace items rather than have them
repaired, but it’s clear from our research that there’s real
value to be had from these discarded goods.”
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