Defra unveils plans to require larger shops to ‘take back’ used electrical items such as toasters for recycling even if bought elsewhere.

Shoppers face a £1 billion “toaster tax” under plans for a new set of net zero rules, retailers and Conservative MPs have warned.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has unveiled plans to require larger shops to “take back” used electrical items such as toasters for recycling, even if the items were bought elsewhere.

The plans would also see online and high street retailers required to provide a “free of charge collection on delivery service” under which they would have to take away a customer’s old appliance, such as a washing machine, television or fridge, if they were delivering a new one. The Telegraph has the story.

Helen Dickinson, the chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, told The Telegraph that the new requirements could cost firms “£1 billion or more” per year – a figure that would be passed on to consumers via higher prices.

The Government insists the measures are needed to avoid millions of household electrical items ending up in landfill each year.

Plans are ‘awful’

The plans threaten to reignite Tory rows over burdensome net zero regulations, which the Prime Minister promised to eschew in favour of a “pragmatic and proportionate” approach to decarbonising that would avoid undue pressures on households and businesses.

David Jones, the Conservative MP and former Brexit minister, described the plans as “awful” and akin to a stealth “toaster tax”.

An official analysis accompanying the Government’s consultation document admits that the cost of the scheme, while paid upfront by retailers, “could then be passed back to consumers through higher prices” – despite Downing Street insisting that its current focus is easing the “pressures” of the high cost of living.

“It will become an invisible charge that everybody pays,” Ms Dickinson said, adding that, contrary to Mr Sunak’s pledge to take a “pragmatic and proportionate” approach to net zero, “It doesn’t feel pragmatic.”

The Government’s consultation document setting out the planned changes – which would be rolled out from 2026 – states they are part of a series of measures that will “influence the transition of the whole economy towards net zero”.

Ms Dickinson said: “We think [the bill would be] in the hundreds of millions of pounds plus, and could be £1 billion or more.” The cost would be borne by retailers rather than funded by revenue already raised via business rates and council tax.

Mr Jones added: “This is exactly the sort of burdensome regulation that we thought we were getting rid of when we left the EU.

“This is an extraordinary imposition on businesses and the Government should have nothing to do with it. I think it is completely unreasonable that they should expect retailers to do that.”

‘Stores may stop selling electrical goods’

The most contentious proposal is for “retailers with a turnover of over £100k of electrical sales each year to provide free takeback of unwanted electrical equipment in store without the need to purchase a new item”.

Ms Dickinson said some shops might simply stop selling electrical items in order to avoid being bound by the requirements.

If a large chemist sold electrical items such as hair tongs and hairdryers then they would be obliged to accept equivalent items bought at other shops.

Ms Dickinson said: “If retailers have to take in more than they sell, some who only sell small volumes may stop selling them at all and larger supermarkets may also reduce the ranges offered, both reducing choice for customers.”

Richer Sounds, the television and hi-fi retailer, warned that its 50 shops were already “packed to the rafters” with stock.

Julie Abraham, the firm’s chief executive, told The Telegraph that the chain did not have “huge empty rooms for storing every broken TV, radio, and speaker that might be left in our stores under the proposed changes to the electrical recycling rules”.

She added: “This means we would have to increase collections from our stores in order to take away these items, increasing our carbon footprint and creating new costs to our business, the environment and ultimately our customers.”

‘We can’t do it for free’

The plans are also opposed by Currys, with Alex Baldock, the chief executive, saying the firm’s existing recycling policy meant that it accounted “for nearly half of all retail technology recycling in the UK”. 

Speaking earlier this month, Mr Baldock warned that retailers were already only making £3 on every £100, adding: “We can’t do it for free.”

Read the full story here.