Free Recycling for Large Appliances On The Way?

Throw away the throw away society - we start the new year with some potentially good news for large appliances buyers.

The government is considering making retailers pick up old appliances for free when delivering new ones to customers, and allowing consumers to recycle smaller appliances at drop-off points in shops.

At the moment, retailers charge for doing so and the cost is around £25-30.

This idea is part of a range of measures around electrical recycling that may become official from 2026.

Currently 155,000 tonnes of small electric appliances are wrongly discarded into general waste each year instead of being correctly recycled.

Did you know: in the UK 500 tonnes of Christmas lights alone are thrown away each year.