Currys offers financial reward for unwanted tech

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 move comes as a string of retailers have begun takeback options in recent months for packaging items, and signals a continuing effort to collect items not consistently covered at the kerbside.

The commitment brings together Currys’ existing sustainability initiatives such as recycling, trade-in, repair, and the retailer’s seven-day fix-it-fast ‘Care & Repair’ promise, plus the UK’s “first ever” scheme to offer customers money in exchange for their unwanted tech.

‘Cash for Trash’ calls on UK consumers to take any unwanted electronics to their nearest Currys branch in exchange for a £5 voucher as a minimum, though if the tech has a higher trade-in value the customer receives that.

Currys says further Long Live Your Tech initiatives will be introduced “in the coming months”.

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.

“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.”

WEEE

Operating online and through 832 stores in eight countries, Currys provides a free instore takeback for all electronics and says it was the “first UK retailer” to offer a free WEEE collection service as part of an existing home delivery service.

Currys says it collects 5,500 tonnes of waste electrical and electronic equipment (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 worth £9 million to reuse.