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.

I think offering the service for cheaper than the local council is fine. If someone is renovating a house for example, it's possible they have already paid for another method of waste disposal. I expect it makes it easier for the company to plan jobs if they know in advance how many disposals they need to do that day. If someone has paid for a service they're less likely to mess you around and decide they do or don't need it on the day. I assume the place which ulimately recycles/landfills the broken items needs to know in advance how much waste they're taking in each day.

Of course they would. They'd have to. The removal costs them money!

Then the cost would just be built-in , and you’d be paying for the service even if you didn’t want to use it.

Realistically, one way or another, you have to pay for waste. As PPs have said, that's either at point of pick up.or will be built into the cost of the product....

It's law that they have to take waste electricals away or provide a disposal method.

But it does cost them to transport it away and dispose of it, plus they then need a waste carriers licence to do so and a lot of paperwork to fill out for every disposal.
£20 is very reasonable and it is on the individual to not flytip, nobody is making them flytip and they would easily find £20 for something else wouldn't they?

We bought a new bed recently and they charged £100 for delivery, installing and removing the old bed, mattress and packaging. Well worth it, but they actually waivered the cost when I asked them if we could get a deal on the price.

You do realise you can list any white goods on a local Facebook free stuff group and you'll have at least 10 responses from people wanting to collect in about 5 minutes right? Even if you say it's knackered and broken they'll bite your hands off for it.

I know some people who just leave them outside their houses and they're gone within the hour even without advertising on FB, but that probably depends on where you live.

I live on a private road, house isn't visible from the street, I put an old broken clothes airer out with a view to getting rid of it later, and within 2 days my security camera picked up 2 women walking off with it at 2am. How they knew it was there in a dead end road I'll never know.

I don't really see the problem OP? Most retailers give the option of disposal of the old one but not everyone needs to or wants to If they are donating it / giving to someone else etc - so it needs to be optional

If you are silly enough not to select the disposal option then that's up to you

Law? They are not a charity seriously some people

Not all old goods are broken though. We got a new freezer and did got our older but still working one.

Our local scrappy is amazing even came in my house to collect. As im disabled and live on my own and will collect next day.
Only thing he charges for is fridge freezers and he was still cheaper than the council.

Then there would be fewer second hand white goods available for those who can't afford new. And SO much wastage.

We're supposed to be re-using and recycling.

Fair. I missed that and was referring to this: “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. ”

Round our way the scrap guys would have taken that in minutes. When we were having work done on the house including a new kitchen, a couple of them were driving by twice a day to see what we had taken out. We left all metals next to the skip and everything from the old boiler and dishwasher to knackered baking trays and curtain poles were gone in minutes.

The consumer always bears all of the cost. Companies don't have a magic pot of recycling money for fridges and freezers. All revenues come from customers, so that's where recycling costs come from too.

This!

There are plenty of options for people. I don’t think the onus should be on the retailer to do anything more than offer to take away the old one for a fee. If they offered a free service it would be built into the price of all appliances which is unfair on anyone who doesn’t need it.

I paid the retailer to take my old washing machine when bought a new one.

We put my mums old washing machine at the bottom of the drive on a nice day with a note saying ‘Noisy but working and free’ and a chap happily took it.

I asked about getting rid of a dishwasher and microwave for scrap on a free site and a chap messaged straight away and came the same day. When I needed him again again a few years later, I had kept his number and messaged him direct. He fetched them within a day or two.

The scrap man won’t take fridges so when mine breaks (it is 15 years old) I will either pay the retailer or the council which ever is cheapest / most convenient.

I've recently had a new kitchen and utility room installed and gave my white goods away (all working) who should be liable for the removal of their goods?

No. People should check the licence of whoever they’re using to take away their white goods or anything else to stop fly tipping. It’s unregulated people that are fly tipping, not the person that wants to get rid of his fridge.

Then what do the company do with it? There are costs to remove, where do they put it/store it. What do they do with it next? It costs to refurb or recycle, it costs the company to scrap, they would need to store in a warehouse. Additional workers also, it not free because it costs to provide this service

I work in this business and we get 300 - 400 of these units back a week, and thats just one warehouse of refurbishable, the scrap units which you can't do anything with (you would be amazed what state some of these items come back in, like something out of a horror movie) you are looking at another 400-500 going a week. Fridges have to go to specialised dealers due to the gas. Couldn't be done if we didn't charge for the service

We’ve always just paid the £20 or whatever it is.

If it’s something still usable, e.g. a cooker or washing machine, because e.g. you’re having new, integrated, someone via Gumtree or e.g. Next Door, will usually be happy to take it away for free. That’s what dd and SiL did with at least one item.

This is free in Ireland, and there’s an EU Directive on it as mentioned by another poster.
www.citizensinformation.ie/en/environment/waste-and-recycling/weee/#:~:text=Retailers%20must%20take%20back%20your,new%20item%20you%20are%20purchasing.

Re the post that said we should check the licence of a 'man with a van' before we let them take our waste: Yes, this is important. I think that in theory householders can be prosecuted if they pass their waste on to a waste carrier who disposes of it illegally. We have a legal duty to take reasonable steps to ensure we only pass waste to someone who is licenced to transport and dispose of it.

New white goods would need to be an awful lot more expensive for the manufacturer/retailer to absorb the cost of taking the old one away.

Individuals have the option of taking to the local council recycling centre without charge (generally) whereas a business has to pay for that. There are always scrap people willing to collect white goods without charge.

Was just going to post that:

If you are having an electrical appliance delivered to your home, you can have the old item collected at the same time for no extra cost. The retailer cannot charge for collecting the waste equipment, although they can charge a delivery fee for the new item

So they can charge a delivery fee of new item but not a collection fee of old item.