Online retailer AO World has donated bench planters made out of recycled fridge plastic to highlight England’s worst areas for fly tipping white goods.
The novel green initiative was undertaken by the online electrical goods retailer, which commissioned research showing 20% of Brits take an “out of sight, out of mind” approach to fly tipping, with 8% admitting they just “don’t care”.
The results of the survey come amid DEFRA figures showing more than one million (1,082,673) reported fly tipping incidents in the year ending March 2023, including 50,091 cases including the illegal disposal of white goods.
In light of the findings, AO World has donated bench planters – made from its plastic recycling facility in Telford – to highlight the three worst offending fly tipping areas around England.
These were the London borough of Haringey – which had the most reported cases of white goods being dumped (2,756) – with Manchester (2,645) and Liverpool (2,176).
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AO World hopes it will provide a visual reminder of the good that can be done through recycling.
Robert Sant, managing director at AO Recycling, said: “It’s concerning that so many people don’t consider that their waste, including old electricals, might be fly tipped by unscrupulous operators.
“It’s a huge problem– not only is it ugly and dangerous to wildlife but if some white goods are not disposed of correctly, then harmful gases can be released into the atmosphere, damaging the ozone layer.
“We are on a mission to eventually make new appliances from old ones and within two years, we want to be able to make new fridges using recycled plastic from our state-of-the-art plant.
“In the meantime, we’re proud to have been able to commission these bench planters. We hope that they will motivate residents in those areas to think about the right way to recycle and end the blight of fly-tipping in UK towns.”
Other key targets for AO World throughout 2024 include installing electric fridge units, piloting electric HGVs and working with suppliers to reduce emissions.
It was revealed last year that high street and physical retailers could raise up to £850 million of additional revenue by selling refurbished and repaired technology, according to a report.
