Remarketing recycled white goods could be worth £235 billion worldwide

Remarketing offers domestic appliance manufacturers a profitable avenue for the disposal of their used goods, says a new report. The impending EU Directive on electrical goods will require producers to recycle three quarters of their appliances. The latest study by an environmental research body (DARP Environmental, funded by Biffaward) shows that remarketing is a viable option, with a potential worldwide market of £235 billion.





WEEE Remarket: an investigation into the remarketing of white goods parts explores the potential market for repairing and re-using appliances and their components once the EU directive on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) comes into force.





In the UK more than 23 million household appliances are discarded every year. Disposal rates are increasing by 16-28 per cent every five years and is the fastest growing in Europe. In white goods such as fridges and washing machines.





One area where remarketing has a definite advantage is in the provision of components for repairing existing appliances. Manufacturers are only obliged to carry spares for a maximum of seven years, but customers tend to replace appliances every ten years. Hence there is a period when spares may become scarce at a time when repairs are more likely to be needed.





Another advantage is the ease of dismantling. The average time taken to disassemble machinery was 100 minutes in the study, but this was using volunteers unfamiliar with the appliances. DARP estimates the market cost to disassemble to be £4.20 plus £3.00 overheads.





Key problems identified by remarketers were:





inadequate regulation of the remarket industry


lack of recognised training programmes for them


scarcity of tools for their specific requirements


You can get a copy of this 3 MB report from Darp’s website at:





www.darpenvironmental.com/downloads/WEEEREmarketfinalreport.pdf