Electrical and telecommunications firm Dixons Carphone has introduced a series of waste-reduction schemes across its stores, including the roll out of a ‘first-ever’ nationwide polystyrene take-back scheme. The retailer, which it says is the largest retail recycler of e-waste, has also committed to making all in-store packaging reusable or recyclable by 2023, and is currently trialling cardboard as an alternative to expanded polystyrene (EPS) for its larger domestic appliance packages such as TVs.
EPS typically proves difficult to recycle and as a result often ends up in landfill or incinerated. With its new initiatives, Dixons hopes to extend the material’s life cycle at its stores. According to the group, it already recycles over a tenth of its polystyrene packaging in the UK, with some of this repurposed for housing insulation. The new in-store service follows its successful trial at 14 Currys PC World stores (which it also owns), and will sit alongside the existing home delivery recycling service at Currys PC World that offers customers the opportunity to return packaging via delivery drivers.
“We’re proud to be the first retailer to enable customers to drop off their TV packaging in stores for recycling,” says Chris Brown, Dixons Carphone Senior Sustainability Operations and Compliance Manager. “Now customers can have their polystyrene taken away at delivery or drop it off at one of our stores. Whatever they choose we’ll take it off their hands and ensure we reuse or recycle it in a responsible way – helping customers do their bit for the planet.”
Over the past year, the retailer says it has removed 1.7 million items of plastic packaging from its own brand products – a figure representing more than 27 tonnes. Initiatives such as these contribute to the group’s commitment to the British Retail Consortium’s Climate Action Roadmap, in which it has pledged to become a net-zero business by 2040.
