New research from WRAP found that household appliances are not lasting as long as many householders would like, while for consumer electronics there is a real appetite and financial opportunity for greater trade-in and re-sale.  Many householders don’t realise their used products still have significant value – this value amounts to around £3 billion across the UK.

Find out why extending appliance and consumer electronic product lifetimes and trading used products can benefit consumers, retailers and the environment.  (See also the News Release).

Workshop: Re-using and recycling bulky waste

We are holding a workshop on Tuesday 4 February (09:30 – 16:30) in Birmingham to help stimulate change in bulky waste services. It will bring together local authority, third and private sector staff to learn about latest developments and good practice of household bulky waste services – collections and HWRCs.

Find out more about the event and why you might want to attend.  

Research: Openings for increased furniture re-use

WRAP research shows that the biggest potential for re-use lies with sofas, wardrobes and bedframes.  Just 17% of the 290,000 tonnes of sofas and upholstered chairs disposed of in one year are re-used. For wardrobes, the re-use figure is only 10% and for bed frames just 7%.

To find out more read our report on mapping supply-to-disposal flows for furniture in the UK.  This research follows on from our study into the re-use potential of household bulky waste published in 2012.

Research: Mattress cleaning for re-use

A research project has been carried out to understand the barriers to mattress re-use in the UK and to trial a range of cleaning techniques. It looked at the options for organisations to take on more cleaning of second-hand mattresses with a view to stimulating higher levels of re-use. It covered interviews with key stakeholders, trials and cost-benefit analysis.

Furniture is frequently discarded before it is worn out, often for aesthetic reasons.   We have a simple tool that can help you to calculate and compare the costs of procuring office furniture in different ways – so avoiding unnecessary disposal.

This report is relevant to all those involved in recycling, manufacturing or supplying of corporate wear, but also organisations who use corporate clothing.

The project looks at commercially viable and emerging de-labelling or de-branding technologies that might be utilised for unwanted corporate wear.  The research estimates the cost-benefit and carbon savings from the increase in re-use that might be achieved by using these technologies.

Many of you may have responded to, or heard about the public consultation on a draft UK Re-use Standard.  This took place between September and November last year and we thank you for your input.

The eagle-eyed amongst you will see that Defra’s Waste Prevention Plan, launched in December 2013, proposes the introduction of a 'standard or similar mechanism for the re-use sector'.

We look forward to being able to give you more details about this in the next issue of the e-newsletter.

The UK economy could be transformed by 2020 if the concept of the circular economy model was really embraced and built into the heart of its thinking.

Come and see us at Resource on 4 - 6 March at ExCeL in London.

The Welsh Government published its Waste Prevention Programme in December.  Within the plan are several actions around re-use, in particular, the development of a re-use network within Wales.

We are holding workshops to discuss such a network in Cardiff and Conwy during February and will be promoting these soon.  There will also be an on-line survey so that we can capture as many views as possible.  This is an exciting opportunity to help shape the future of re-use in Wales so please do get involved.

If you would like to know when workshop places can be booked, please send your email address to melanie.chilton@wrap.org.uk

Our last e-newsletter included a repair survey.  Ten (out of 16) organisations that responded reported that they have a policy in place for repairing products that are used by their organisation.

It was reported that money spent on repair is dependent on the expense and size of the damaged or broken product. Perhaps unsurprisingly, research participants indicated that they would be more willing to pay more for the repair of photocopiers, laptops and dishwashers, than mobile phones, vacuum cleaners, and kettles.

You can find out more about re-using and repairing electricals and the benefits this can bring on our website.

This time we have one quick question for you about buying second hand products.  Click here to take part and we'll tell you the outcome in the next e-newsletter.

Please forward this email on to anyone who you think might be interested.  They can then subscribe to receive future issues.