Currys is now paying shoppers who hand in old or broken tech for recycling in a new trial.

The retailer’s “Cash for Trash” scheme is designed to make recycling electronic waste “easy and rewarding”.

Customers can trade in their defunct devices for a £5 off voucher for spending instore or online.

All kinds of products are accepted, and they don’t need to have been bought from a Currys.

Can I recycle in any Currys store?

The scheme is available at every Curry store across the north and north east.

You can see where your local branch is in this interactive map:

What can I recycle?

Anything with a battery or a plug qualifies.

 

How does it work?

You can take any of your old tech to any Currys store — ever if it no longer works — and they will give you £5 off your next purchase.

Welcome to Trash in the Attic: The daytime TV x Currys collab that you didn’t know you needed.

This month we are launching Cash for Trash 😱

Can you really get a £5 Currys voucher for a hotplate that you ran over with your car 🤔?

Watch to find out 👇#LongLiveYourTech pic.twitter.com/zoiCymoUxF

— Currys (@currys) March 17, 2022

They will pay a fiver for anything they consider to be “trash”.

Lindsay Haselhurst, chief supply chain officer at Currys, said: “This trial is all about making recycling easy and rewarding.

“We’re urging the nation to look in drawers, under the sofa and up in the loft — as these unused tech devices that have seen better days could be repaired, rehomed, or recycled into something new.

“We really are accepting any tech, bought from anywhere, even if it’s broken — it might look like trash, but it isn’t to us.”

How long is this initiative running for?

The scheme launched this week and will run until April 15.

And the small print?

You have to buy something in Currys costing no less than £25 by Saturday, April 30 in order to redeem a Cash for Trash promotion voucher.

Your voucher cannot be redeemed on giftcards, consoles, Apple iPads, Airpods, Apple Macs or Apple Watches.

The vouchers are limited to one per customer, and you will only get one £5 off voucher regardless of the quantity of products recycled.

You can read the full terms and conditions here.

Just how big is the problem of electronic waste?

Old electronic products are one of the “fastest growing waste streams in the UK”, according to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa).

Known as Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), Sepa says this kind of waste is “increasing at a rate three times that of average municipal growth, with much of it destined for landfill”.

Zero Waste Scotland says that globally, 53.6 million metric tonnes of electronic product was produced in 2019, up 21% in five years.

And of those millions of tonnes, only 17.4% was recycled.

Read more about schemes that offer recycling rewards:

• Boots pays consumers £5 to recycle just 5 empty beauty containers 
• Money in the (bottle) bank: Sainsbury’s pays customers to return empty bottles