Fifty organisations have signed up to the Waste & Resources Action Programme’s (WRAP) Electrical and Electronic Sustainability Action Plan (esap) since its launch in July, it has been revealed today (18 November).

The esap signatories, which include electronics manufacturers LG Electronics, Microsoft, Dell, and waste electronic compliance schemes ERP and Repic, will be officially revealed today at WRAP’s Resources Limited conference in London.

esap details

Led by WRAP on behalf of UK governments, esap has been launched to bring together stakeholders in the electrical and electronic equipment sector (such as designers, manufacturers, retailers, recyclers and reuse organisations) and act as a collaborative framework for ‘sharing evidence and implementing sector-wide actions’ to improve product and business efficiency.

It follows on from WRAP’s December 2013 report ‘Switched on to Value’, which found that around a quarter of all waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) discarded by householders at recycling centres was suitable for reuse, and that if these products were reused (and the lifetimes of shorter-life products were extended), the UK could have saved up to 170,000 tonnes of resources, delivering a carbon benefit of around 1.1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year.

Further, WRAP found that the UK market value for trading pre-owned equipment could be worth up to £3 billion, and that as 55 per cent of people would buy secondhand technology products, there are ‘significant opportunities for businesses and consumers through trading-in used electronic equipment and designing longer life appliances’.

It has estimated that encouraging the trade-in of used TVs alone could grow UK GDP by over £750 million per year by 2020, and, with esap signatories representing two thirds of the UK’s TV sales, this ‘vision could become a reality’. If the TV model was scaled up to the whole electronics sector, WRAP says this could increase GDP by around £5.25 billion.

As such, esap seeks to boost efficiencies in a range of products, but especially televisions, laptop computers, vacuum cleaners, refrigeration products and washing machines, which WRAP has identified as having the greatest resource impacts on the UK market.

Signatories’ actions include: extending product durability through design and customer information; implementing new business models such as take-back and resale; Understanding and influencing consumer behaviour on product durability and reparability; Minimising product returns; and, gaining greater value from reuse and recycling.

‘Driving greater resource efficiencies across the whole product life cycle’

Dr Liz Goodwin, CEO of WRAP, said: “I am delighted with the take up of esap from the electricals industry, which has the potential to revolutionise how we design, manufacture, sell, repair, re-use, and recycle electrical and electronic products. By making better use of resources, businesses can better safeguard their future through creating new opportunities for economic and environmental benefits, whilst saving consumers money.”

Several of the signatories also commented, with a Sky spokesperson saying: “At Sky, we’re always looking at ways to make our products better and more sustainable year on year. Our new partnership with WRAP will help us to drive even greater resource efficiencies across the whole product life cycle, with a particular focus on the reuse and recycling of our products. We look forward to collaborating both with WRAP and our fellow signatories.”

Matt Sexton, Director of Corporate Social Responsibility at Kingfisher plc (parent company of B&Q), added: “Our work with WRAP on alternative business models validated many of our initial assumptions, with data and customer research that was detailed, comprehensive and gave us all we needed to be able to present the case for change credibly within our business. Subsequent discussion with potential service providers have proved our data to have been extremely accurate which I think reflects well on WRAP’s methods and choice of consultancy partners.”

WRAP is continuing to encourage other organisations from the electricals sector to sign up to esap.

Find out more about esap.