Recolight sometimes gets asked to recycle brand new LED lights, when the members of our compliance scheme have unsold, remaindered stock. We now have a well established procedure to divert these away from recycling, and instead we make them available to charities and needy families. This reduces their energy bills, reduces carbon emissions, and reduces waste.

Commit

We signed the pledge because it captures our vision of the need to increase reuse and remanufacture, and we want to support, encourage, and celebrate all such action.

Plan

When asked to recycle new products by our members, we set up our own reuse hub, to link donors and recipients. We also identified partners that could receive new products and make them available to others. This ensure the products are used rather than recycled. They also reduce energy bills and carbon emissions of recipients.

Partner

The partners we work with now include: 

Former prime minister Gordon Brown’s “Multibank” initiative. This acts as a food bank for products. We have sent over 13,000 brand new LED light bulbs to their central hub, for distribution to needy families. These LED light bulbs help reduce the energy bills of recipients, and also reduce carbon emissions.

The Donate-a-light charity. We have diverted over 5,000 unsold commercial light fittings to this organisation, avoiding unnecessary recycling. They store unused lights, and then make them available to charities, hospices, community groups, and faith organisations. The ligthting products provided are all LED, and are used to replace old incandescent and fluorescent fittings. This reduces carbon emissions, and also reduces energy bills for the recipient organisations.

Act

Whenever we get a request to recycle new product, we have a policy to always request permission to divert them to one of our partners. We have also made product available on our own reuse hub.

Share

• We have publicised our actions on LinkedIn.

• We have informed all of our members that we now seek to divert new products rather than recycle them.

• We have encouraged other schemes in our sector to work with Multibank.

• Some Recolight staff have also been involved in installing the lighting products at recipient sites.