Originally published at: Welcoming a roadmap for electricals - The Restart Project
At the end of March, the UK government’s environment department (DEFRA) announced the five priority work streams of its Circular Economy Taskforce. We welcomed the ambition, with a clear commitment to repair and reuse, but were dismayed by the absence of electrical waste (e-waste). With the UK holding the title of second highest producer of e-waste per person, this felt like a big oversight.
It seems many other people felt this too. Many of you e-mailed your MP, calling for e-waste to be considered and asking them to remind DEFRA that many people—including dozens of MPs—want to see ambitious support for repair and reuse. As a result of this support and feedback from industry, it was decided that a roadmap should be developed for electrical waste after all. It’s now effectively the sixth priority for the Taskforce.
This is great news, and things are moving quickly!
This month we were invited to both a large workshop and a ministerial round-table to hear the proposals that had been developed on electricals and offer our input.
What we heard is encouraging. Yes there are the usual measures to increase recycling of electricals (what should be a last resort). But for the first time they were matched by well thought out policies to increase reuse and repair. What’s more, representatives from across industry seemed to be in agreement that these measures were needed. Keeping electrical products in use for longer really does seem to be a priority as this roadmap is developed.
The Circular Economy Taskforce has been billed as a once in a generation opportunity to shift how we consume, use and, eventually, dispose of our products. The indications so far are that this opportunity is not being wasted (pardon the pun).
But this experience has shown that continued reminders of public and parliamentary support for repair and reuse measures are incredibly important. So we’re delighted to be hosting a repair cafe in parliament in June. For this to be as impactful as we need it to be, we need as many MPs to be there as possible. And we know MPs care about what their constituents think.
Please help us get a great turnout by emailing your MP now to ask them to attend using our simple tool below…
