Consumers can earn money for trading in old appliances

Earlier this year the UK government brought in the car scrappage scheme, which enables those with vehicles that were at least ten years old to get up to £2000 towards a new car for scrapping their old one.

Following the success of the scheme some industry groups called for a similar scheme to be brought in for household appliances, arguing that this would not only boost sales for retailers and improve the economy but would also have environmental benefits with consumers switching from old, worn appliance to energy efficient, greener models.

It has now been revealed that retailers are offering consumers a similar scheme whereby they can get up to £200 off a new appliance for trading in their old one, which could mean many benefits.

This would enable consumers to use more energy efficient appliances, thus saving them money on the cost of their bills, and would help to improve sales, as well as boasting environment benefits due to newer appliance being far greener than older ones.

Amongst the appliances that consumers will be able to trade in under this scheme are fridge freezers, dishwashers, and washing machines.

The British Retail Consortium was one of the industry groups that had been calling for this sort of scheme to be brought in, and officials from the group are expecting the incentive to prove very popular especially in the current financial climate.

An official from Comet, which is currently offering this incentive to consumers, stated: ‘Encouraging people to trade in and recycle their old appliance for a greener model works.’

An official from the British Retail Consortium said: ‘This is just the kind of scheme we’re advocating. A modern, efficient fridge-freezer uses less than half the energy of a 1995 model.’

Tags: fridge freezer, old appliances, Consortium, trade ins, official, trading