PM praises retailer’s wallet-friendly Cash for Trash recycling scheme
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The Prime Minister has praised retailer Currys for its efforts to re-use parts from defunct laptops and other electricals to protect the environment and cut customers’ bills.
During a tour of the shop floor at the chain’s repair and customer service warehouse in Newark, Nottinghamshire, Rishi Sunak was shown how spare parts are produced on 3D printers, while others are “harvested” from unwanted products.
After being shown how a vacuum cleaner trigger can be made with a liquid resin printer, and talking with staff involved in offering remote advice to customers, the Prime Minister said: “It’s visits like this that inspire me – seeing what you all are doing, seeing how hard you are working, seeing the new skills that you are acquiring to build a better life for yourselves.
“And in the process doing something wonderful for millions of people around the country, saving them money and saving our environment.
“That is inspiring and I want to harvest that and spread it across the country.”
Commenting further during a Q and A session with workers at the site, Mr Sunak added: “I am appalling with my hands at fixing anything… so the technical skills that you guys have is incredible.
“What’s great about what you do is that it has so much impact on the country. All of that is just putting cash in their pockets at a time when the cost of living is an issue.
“You are saving people hundreds of pounds in their family budgets.
“And at the same time you are doing something wonderful for the environment because you are able to find every little bit of these big electronic devices and re-use them and put them back into circulation – great for the environment, great for people’s wallets.”
Currys’ Samantha Canham, manager of the repair centre, said: “A customer will bring a unit into a store – it’s called Cash for Trash.
“We will bring that into the repair centre, put that through the harvesting database and take parts.
“We can save up to 20 repairs from your laptop. It’s great for environment, good for the wallet and good for the customer.”
