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This is very common in the US, although there is no regulation governing it. Most places will take your old appliances away when they deliver your new ones.

Heck, our power company will pay you $35 if you recycle a working fridge or freezer through them. With them coming out to pick it up for free. The idea being that a lot of people stick their old, inefficient fridge in the basement or garage when they get a new one and it sucks down a lot of power.

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I'm surprised they don't want you to pay for more electricity. Good on them

In Michigan at least, these programs are funded by the taxpayer. $Power_Company gets to make a profit on every crappy fridge they haul away or every LED lightbulb they install.

They didn't start doing that of their own accord.

If the truck has to come back after making deliveries it's usually better to load it up with scrap metal than to send it back empty.

It's a pretty damn good example of the market solving a problem by itself.

This only really falls apart when the cost of new stuff is less than the cost of recycling. High wages are not good for recycling/repair businesses.

When you get new tires on your car most places will take the old ones for free. They get recycled into filler for lower quality rubbers (you can't re-vulcanize rubber, it's like un-baking a cake)

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