Retailers of white goods should take old ones away

[Xjk]

My parents had a new dishwasher as theirs packed up. The retailer they bought it from, installed it. They paid £20 for taking the old one away. This is cheaper than the council's bulky waste at £26.

I think it should be made law that all retailers of white goods should take the old one away free. Seen houses with old fridges etc on their driveways for 5 years plus. Then see white goods fly tipped everywhere. Surely if people can spend mid hundreds on white goods, then they can afford the £20 to have old item taken away to be recycled/disposed properly.

A family friend decided to take his old under counter fridge to the tip and he damaged the wiring to the light at the top of the boot. £180 bill.

£20 is a good deal. Very convenient. That's what I always do. Just pay them.

If this became the case, they’d build the cost into the price, you’d still pay.

It will never be free though. The cost of the new item will be inflated to include disposal.

Your family friend is irrelevant. It’s not the fault of any retailer that he screwed up.

It would just mean the price of white goods goes up by £20. But I agree with the sentiment.

This is only relevant to fridges and freezers tho, scrap men will take away anything else within seconds where I live.

Might encourage them to make better, stronger products.

I think it is fair enough for us as consumers to bear part of the cost of managing waste. I think that the charge retailers make only covers the actual collection of the waste -- they themselves (or the manufacturers) are legally required to cover the cost of the actual recycling.
That seems like a reasonable sharing of the burden.

I think it should be made law that all retailers of white goods should take the old one away free.

Fine - al that would mean is that the cost of every new washing machine or dishwasher increases by £20. Because nothing is "free". Also, have you ever tried to move a washing machine without trolleys??

Same here. Post on a local group you have an oven/dishwasher etc....... for scrap and you will have someone message you ASAP and it will be gone within the hour.

Yes, I agree. £20 added on to my £650 washing machine - plumbed in, working, the old one removed? Worth it.

The OP wasn’t suggesting that it should be taken away for free.

the OP was suggesting that if suppliers were required to take away the old appliance it would reduce the fly tipping

Why should it be law? Ridiculous comment. Just another example of people wanting everyone else to sort things out for them. It should be law that you have to dispose of your old one properly more than anything else.

Why should it be free!???

She literally says they “should take the old one away for free.”

She specifically said all retailers of white goods should take the old one away for free.
It's the first sentence of her second paragraph.

But retailers are already required to provide take-back services for waste electrical goods. These services are free in-store, but they are allowed to charge for the costs of collecting from the customers home.

All this is covered in the WEEE Regulations - and there will be further evolutions of these requirements under new regs which will be introduced under the 2022 Environment Act.

I'm not sure how that could work.

Would the delivery team have to take it?

What about if you wanted to put it as a spare in the garage? Or give it to your DS for his new home? Or use it for shelving?

So would the deliverers have to fudge some paperwork to say customer refused to hand over the old appliance?

Or if it were compulsory that they offer to take it, isn't that exactly the same as what happens now?

All I can see is that they put the price of all items up by £20 and that covers their costs of taking some items away with a bit left over they can put down as profit.

You say yourself, if you can afford new white goods you can afford £20 for disposal. I think customers should retain the ability to dispose of their own though.

Also not everyone buying (eg) a washing machine has an old one to dispose of anyway. It might be a first home, maybe they've given away or sold an older working machine. Why should they have to pay an inflated price for disposal of a non existent machine.

Dealing with fly tipping is a separate issue.

I think the person getting rid of something should need to factor in disposal of their item. if that means paying £20 for the ease of having it taken straight away then great.

It's not the responsibility of the retailer to remove old products for free. That's down to the consumer. Most retailers offer a removal service that is usually cheaper than a council collection.

Our local white goods shop fits everything and removes old items as part of the cost.

They also deliver for free and have often beaten us home from the shop

This. Why should we all have to pay a hidden cost as we all may not want to use it. What a stupid suggestion!