Window and Boiler Recycling
Scrappage schemes are generally run by the government in order to deliver incentives for people to trade in their old equipment. The incentives are usually a discount towards a new item that is more environmentally friendly or it may be money in exchange for disposing a unit. These kinds of schemes are very popular as a lot more people are becoming environmentally aware and want to do what they can to preserve the environment. The Uk has run a few successful scrappage schemes over the years. Examples of these were the boiler scrappage scheme, the windows scrappage scheme and the car scrappage scheme. Window and boiler recycling scrappage schemes were probably the most successful out of the three.
The way it works usually is that the customer must qualify that they are eligible for the scheme. It can also be traded in for a new unit. If the unit fits the criteria and is eligible, then the company may give the customer some money - usually a fixed amount of money - in the way of a price reduction towards a better and even more environmentally friendly version of that product. The government will sometimes match the amount that the company is giving to the customer. It can be the full amount or part of the amount of money that was given to the customer. The unit is taken in by the company which is then repurposed or destroyed.
Glass and Glazing Federation with Anglican Home Improvements, frontrunners in the energy efficient windows petitioned the government to develop a windows scrappage scheme. Although there has been no response from the government, Anglican Home Improvements went ahead in October 2013 and began a scrappage scheme for windows. Anglican Home Improvements had a similar scheme to this that they ran in 2009. They are the first major company to run a windows scrappage scheme.
In 2010, British Gas and the government agreed to give credit towards a new boiler if they brought the old one in at the time of buying a new one. It only ran for a few months because the threshold of 125,000 homes had been furnished. This served the purpose of recycling old units and installing new units into the homes.
The car scrappage scheme ran in 2009 and was very simple. If you scrapped your car and it was built in 1999 or earlier, you would get a discount on the new vehicle. This was later increased to cars built in 2000 or earlier. The purpose of the was to decrease the damage to the environment by aging cars and also give the car industry a boost. Whether the scheme was successful or not was questionable from an environmental perspective but it did increase the efficiency of the cars and overall safety of the vehicles.