Speaking during a visit to Curry’s Newark recycling centre, the Prime Minister praised the retailers efforts to fight e-waste.
The businesses ‘Cash for Trash’ Initiative means that customers can hand back their e-waste in return for a £5 voucher.
At the 500,000 square foot Newark campus, the retailer processes the devices and prepares them for recycling, repair (it also offers these online via its Repair Live team) or for resell on its ebay site.
When Sustainability Beat visited the site earlier this month, COO Lindsay Haselhurst explained that the idea for the Cash for Trash initiative came from the fact society needed a “wake up call” to help change behaviours and make recycling “a bit cool”.
On his visit yesterday the prime minister said: “What’s great about what you do, is that it has so much impact on the country. You are saving millions of people a fortune”.
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“When you extend the lifetime of their laptop, their tv, or allow them to buy something refurbished – all of that is just putting cash in their pockets,” he continued.
“And at the same time, you are doing something wonderful for the environment because every little bit of these big electronic devices and re-use them and put them back into circulation – great for the environment, great for people’s wallets.”
Currys CEO Alex Baldock said: “It’s a testament to the work we do at Newark that the prime minister wants to see it.”
“Rishi Sunak was bowled over by the skills of our colleagues, the sheer scale of our facility and all the good we’re doing – keeping money in our customers’ pockets and protecting the planet, by giving tech a longer life.”
“Of course, this is great for our business too, which is in everyone’s interests – or as the PM described it a ‘win-win'”.
