Waste from electronic tools is a big problem – I have two big boxes sitting around with electronic gadgets which are either broken or not used anymore. In researching which kind of tools are available, I came upon a service called „Electroreturn“ run by the Deutsche Post AG – the German mailservice.
Their twitter account exists since 2012 and unfortunately only has a few hundred followers. According to the Youtube video, the service exists since 2005 and has in an impressive 2.5 million recycled mobile phones.
How does it work? Download the free stamp from their website, put the electronic gadget into an envelope and send it off.
For the private consumer the service is free of charge. The producer has to pay for the delivery and the service. The alternative is to drop of the electronic items at the local recycling facilities, but the Deutsche Post claims that through their service, the electronic items get sorted and thus better recycled.
They also address the climate impact, claiming that the delivery uses existing logistics. I will follow-up with a question to their CSR department on this issue.
All in all, it is a great service – which I was not aware of. Probably more consumers should know about this.
Photo by Kevin Steinhardt 
