Recycling old electrical appliances FAQ

I think the obligation is to participate in a recycling scheme. Paying money to the local authority may suffice. A Google search shoudl help. Also, I suspect 'take back' does not exclude collection costs. 'Reasonable' presumably also forms a part of the test. It would hardly be reasonable for you to deposit a washing machine or a fridge freezer unannounced in a small shop. My Waitrose will accept electricals for recycling but with a size limit. I'll try to ask them what the policy is with a washing machine but I think I know the answer :-)

Around my way just leave it at the front of the property and it disappearance within a day.

it is. But the cost of pickup is usually about a fiver, and that's cheaper than te fuel to take it to the dump :=-)

When I lived in south London, a neighbour hired a skip and he was absolutely raging when other people started using it. However, by the next morning he discovered that more had been removed than added.

Yesbut ... you make the effort to carefully pack the skip as densely as possible, overnight the skip raiders jumble the contents upside down, they may take a lot of metal away, but now there are huge air pockets in your skip :-(

As well as anything else you might have left out and handily visible whilst you were tidying up.

Op 24/04/2025 om 10:51 schreef Clive Page:

No that I know in UK, but I used to live in the Netherlands and local Councils have such obligation. However you have to pay for collection.

Not all councils charge. Here in Leicester householders get several free bulk collections a year. And the itinerants come round several times a week looking for scrap.

Wasn't that much here but certainly enough for me to do the disposal myself. Probably would have fitted as it was into the hatchback I had at the time but a short amount of time with screwdrivers/socket set/crowbar/hammer and it was reduced to a flat pack of metal panels and a drum with assorted plastic, drive belt etc inside. Much easier to load/unload at the tip without risking paint damage.

Beware! Some councils are charging people for fly tipping for doing that. I'm lucky in that I can put items in view but not on the highway (carriageay; footway; verge).

I bought a washing machine from Argos online (but it was two years ago!) and they took the dead one as past of the deal.

'part' of the deal

I can leave such items on my property but it's becoming commonplace for overnight fly tipping where people will dump items with no scrap value (settee or mattress) on the pavement of the main roads. This is main roads in the built up area of the town.

The council's waste collection contractor charge £11 in my town, and £8 for any other (large) item collected at the same time.

Some of the big well known warehouse "box shifters" charge £30 for taking away old appliances when delivering a new appliance.

You're lucky. Our council charged me £76 to take away a sofa and 2 armchairs.

I suspect that if you advertised them on Facebook Marketplace, you would have had folks banging on your door.

It is illegal to sell old furniture that has not got fire resistance.

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Vaclav Klaus

They wouldn't have stayed long after seeing the crapped out state of them! Hence junking them was the only solution.