Co-op has announced it will be expanding its partnership with tech-recirculation service, Spring in a bid to help its customers cut e-waste.
Originally launching in London last year with high-tech self-service pods across 20 stores, it will now be rolled out to the symbol group‘s stores in Birmingham, Brighton, Leeds and Manchester.
With an aim of avoiding e-waste, Co-op has made recycling or reusing electronic devices more accessible to its customers.
The service will allow shoppers to sell their unwanted devices such as phones, tables and smartwatches at one of Spring’s pods to in turn be repaired, refurbished, reused or recycled.
Despite over 14,000 devices accepted within the service, for those that cannot be re-used, components such as gold, copper, aluminium and steel will be recycled.
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“Co-op’s partnership with Spring will enable more communities to recycle or reuse their electronic devices locally, unlocking the value in forgotten phones and other unwanted tech and, importantly, preventing unnecessary and avoidable e-waste,” Co-op’s director of innovation and format, Mark Matthews said.
“If we are going to have a natural environment which we are proud to pass on to future generations we need action to be taken now. By making it easier for consumers to make small changes to their everyday lives, it can add up to make a big difference for our environment.”
Spring co-founder, Tom Williams added: “Leaving an unused device in a drawer means that rather than it being reused by someone else, it’s taken out of circulation and needs to be replaced with something new.
“Spring, together with Co-op, are making it easy for people to recirculate unwanted tech, which not only puts money in their pockets but also has a positive impact on the environment. We’ve already made a huge impact with our first pods in London and we’re excited to bring this to more local communities”.
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