UK households could put old toasters and hairdryers on the kerbside for pick-up under the proposals.

Kerbside collections for small electrical goods such as toasters and hairdryers could be rolled out across the UK from 2026 under government proposals to boost recycling.

Ministers are also considering drop-off points in retailers where households can recycle unwanted items for free.

And shops and online sellers would be made to pick up unwanted or broken larger electrical items such as fridges when delivering replacements.

A 10-week consultation is taking place.

  • @[email protected]English
    2•11 months ago

    my actual biggest wish, which I will never get because the administrative costs would be astronomical, is that the cost added to goods be directly tied to their recyclability (both in materials and labor) as it would incentivize building more easily recycled products by manufacturers to keep costs competitive.

    Interesting point. I guess the price of the individual product won’t be differentiated based on cost of recycling, but there will still be an incentive for retailers and therefore manufacturers to make products last longer, which might be better in the long run?

    • @[email protected]English
      2•11 months ago

      yeah I don’t know; I imagine the per-unit cost of this will be pretty low in the end, and won’t incentivize much change at all to the products since it’ll be a fraction of the cost, but I would love to be wrong: things that last longer and are supported longer are obviously the best choice, and feel in very short supply. but something is changing: look at the Android phones from Google and Samsung which have seen a tremendous increase in support length; that’s (probably?) due to consumer demand and government pressures, so yeah it might matter in the end.