Websuper Picnic will collect discarded electronic appliances from customers in the Zwolle and Meppel area from 17 April to 7 May. Households in these places can bring a hairdryer, headphones, remote control or smartphone, for example, for reuse or recycling when delivering their groceries. The online supermarket set up the temporary Picnic WeCycle action in collaboration with the OPEN Foundation.
In the Netherlands, millions of electrical appliances still disappear into the trash every year, or they remain unused in a cupboard or drawer. Without knowing it, many people still have electronics of value in their homes. After all, small electronic devices often contain many valuable materials that can be recycled.
Low-threshold action
According to Picnic co-founder Michiel Muller, collecting small old electronic appliances fits well with the online supermarket's sustainable mission. "Families have more and more electronic devices that are not being used, for example because they no longer work or because children have run out of them. Often, up to eighty per cent of a small household appliance can be recycled. Since we are already coming to the door, during the campaign weeks we are making it extra easy to bring discarded appliances for recycling. Households have been handing in empty Nespresso capsules and plastic bags to our runners for some time now. With this low-threshold campaign, we are now also giving electrical appliances a second life."
Jan Vlak, director of OPEN Foundation, known for the WeCycle collection points, says the amount of e-waste has grown significantly in recent years. "Research shows that more than eight in ten Dutch people are willing to hand in all their electrical waste neatly for recycling, provided it can be done easily. With this action, we will see if it helps to make handing in even easier."
Recovered materials as raw material
Around a hundred thousand households in the Zwolle and Meppel areas can use Picnic's take-home service from 17 April to 7 May. Customers only need to put the appliances clean in a bag and give it to the delivery driver. The handed-in appliances will then go from the hub to a sorting centre. There, it is determined whether the appliances are still suitable for reuse. If not, the valuable materials are reused as raw materials.
