We will improve our use of resources and create circular business models

With the global consumption of materials and e-waste continuing to rise, our relationship with tech needs to change. We believe there’s a far better way – better for customers, better for us, better for communities and better for the planet. And that better way is to give technology a longer life.

We all love new technology and want to feel good about buying a new piece of kit. But we also know that electronic waste is the world’s fastest growing waste stream and is expected to grow to nearly 82 million tonnes by 2030. Circular business models represent both a commercial opportunity and a long-term necessity.

As a leading technology retailer with one of Europe’s largest tech repair labs and an in-home repair service, we’re positioned to help customers extend the life of their tech. Our approach is built around reduce, repair, reuse and recycle. This is supported by specific initiatives that can help grow revenue, strengthen customer relationships, and extend the useful life of technology.

Reduce

Helping customers reduce their environmental footprint

  • We know our customers want to reduce their impact on the environment, and it’s our job to make that easier.
  • From energy efficient ovens to water efficient dishwashers, we’re making it easier for our customers to make more sustainable choices, through tools that enable transparency and comparability between products.
  • This year we invested in advertising, to encourage the adoption of more efficient technologies and we continue to sell refurbished products.
  • Elkjøp Nordic continues to grow their portfolio of Nordic Swan Ecolabel products.
  • When customers buy technology, we can help protect it with our range of care services and tech insurance plans. Across the Group, over 11.6m customers rely on these services for peace of mind and helping their technology last longer.
Repair

Reducing the need for product replacements

  • We service a broad range of technology products, restoring them to optimal working condition and helping customers maximise the value and lifespan of their tech, whilst promoting repair as an attractive alternative to replacement
  • We employ around 1,500 skilled repair colleagues across the Group. 70% of these are based at our UK & Ireland Customer Repair Centre in Newark, one of Europe’s largest technology repair facilities, and they are supported by approximately 185 field engineers carrying out in-home repairs. Elkjøp operates three Elcare repair centres employing around 270 skilled repair technicians, the largest electronics repair operation in the region.
  • In the UK & Ireland, we increased the ratio of units successfully repaired to 84%, +2% YoY, and expanded repair capabilities to include small domestic appliances. We also launched an online repair booking platform and our RepairLive video support service handles 2,000 customer connections per week, with 21% of issues solved remotely.
  • Our partnership with Vyntelligence enables Currys’ customers to use video to show and describe any issues with their tech products. The AI-powered diagnostics then summarises the key issues and shares them with our specialist repair technicians, improving first-time fix rates, streamlining workflows and reducing carbon footprint generated by unnecessary callout visits.
  • In the Nordics, we launched an updated Elcare strategy and introduced RepairByElcare, streamlining the repair journey, improving integration through Bluecare, and achieving a 70% successful repair return rate while continuing to scale repair capabilities and offer spare parts.
Reuse and Recycle

Increasing our e-waste collected for reuse and recycling

  • We continue to work on increasing the volume of e-waste collected for reuse and recycling through improved colleague awareness, customer communication at the point of sale, financial incentives such as Trade-in and Cash for Trash programmes, and awareness campaigns like ‘Track the Tech’ which shows how easy, safe and secure it is to recycle old tech with Currys.
  •  In 2025/26 6.3m pieces of e-waste, an increase of 13% year-on-year, were collected for reuse and recycling across our Group, equivalent to 97,562 tonnes.
  • We support trade-in across most existing product categories and continue to increase trade-in volumes through targeted campaigns, with over 80,000 devices traded in across the Nordics and more than 71,000 products traded in through the UK.
  • Cash for Trash schemes in the Nordics helped drive an uplift of 15% in e-waste collected, while the UK doubled the Cash for Trash value, which supported 340,000 redemptions, delivering more than £2.5m in customer savings. 
  • The Hidden Treasure Hunt campaign launched this year, inviting nearly 6m pupils to recycle unwanted electronics from their households, helping drive awareness of responsible recycling and supporting the wider Recycle Your Electricals programme. This will run for three years. 
  • We continue to sell refurbished tech through our online platforms and in selected stores in the Nordics. Currys has sold over 141,000 refurbished tech items in 2025/26, an increase of +9%, predominantly driven through mobiles, laptops and small tech devices. In the Nordics demand for popular models of refurbished smartphones led to sales rising +209%. 
  • Our repair operations in Newark reuse spare parts harvested from returned products, which supply approximately 37% of the parts needed for repairs at Newark, strengthening the reliability and affordability of our repair services.
Reuse and Recycle

Increasing our e-waste collected for reuse and recycling

  • We continue to work on increasing the volume of e-waste collected for reuse and recycling through improved colleague awareness, customer communication at the point of sale, financial incentives such as Trade-in and Cash for Trash programmes, and awareness campaigns like ‘Track the Tech’ which shows how easy, safe and secure it is to recycle old tech with Currys.

Key facts

Across our Group in 2025/26

11.6 m

active care services and tech insurance plans

1.6 m

repair activity to customers tech completed

6.3 m

items of e-waste collected for reuse and recycling

Collaborating with others

We’re helping to accelerate industry change by working with others. We have continued our membership of the Circular Electronics Partnership (‘CEP’) which brings together experts, business leaders and global organisations to set a vision and roadmap to a circular economy for electronics by 2030. In 2025/26, Currys contributed insights to the CEP’s new report, developed in collaboration with The Carbon Trust, on the carbon impact of circular electronics. Our case study illustrates how we extend product lifespans through our repair and refurbishment services, and how our digital repair tools help cut transport-related emissions from the process, by resolving issues remotely. The Carbon Impact of Circular Electronics - CEP | Circular Electronics Partnership

We also welcomed University College London (‘UCL’) researchers to our Customer Repair Centre in Newark. The visit gave the UCL team, whose work spans plastic waste innovation, repair, and materials recovery, a first-hand look at circularity operating at scale. Together, the teams exchanged insights on repair, reuse and materials recovery, strengthening shared ambitions to build a more sustainable tech ecosystem.

Across the Nordics we continued to lead industry progress through strategic partnerships with industry bodies, research institutions and policymakers - all focused on advancing repair, reuse and responsible consumption. We contributed to industry insight and national research programmes, while working with trade associations to build skills, raise awareness and encourage more sustainable customer behaviours. The importance of repair received high-profile recognition, when Crown Prince Haakon of Norway visited our Elcare repair centre facility in Kongsvinger to see first-hand how defective electronics are restored. 

Product packaging

We’re prioritising a number of ways to help reduce, recycle and reuse plastics and packaging, proactively work with suppliers of own label and licensed brand products to remove plastic in packaging. Since launching the initiative in 2019, we’ve decreased plastic packaging by 12% and removed 8.96m items of plastic weighing 348 tonnes. We continuously assess new packaging materials for recyclability. Over 99.9% of our packaging is recyclable, with 78% through normal household collection (based on UK infrastructure). Of the remaining 22%, 76% is expanded polystyrene which is needed to protect the product.

In the UK & Ireland, we provide free packaging recycling when we deliver and unbox large household appliances. We also offer packaging recycling services in the Nordics.

We engage with our suppliers and work with them to explore opportunities to reduce environmental impact by conducting trials to understand the lifecycle impacts of packaging changes. Best practice from previous work means many products are now plastic-free from launch, such as the Sandstrom iPad stylus and Goji Nintendo gaming accessories.

With the implementation of new EU and UK packaging regulations, extended producer responsibility costs are continuing to increase. Additional costs for raw materials, shipping and protecting the product from damage all present challenges to implementing plastic reduction options. To reduce costs and our environmental impact, we are exploring alternative packaging materials that carry lower extended producer costs, while also reviewing and optimising our packaging testing processes to ensure products are adequately protected in transit without increasing packaging volume or shipping requirements.

Latest news & more

News & Media
Press Release Jun 22, 2026

One-in-three Brits still holding onto their first-ever mobile phone, as UK’s tech trash mountain grows

Press Release Jan 28, 2026

Millions of schoolkids lead nationwide hunt to tackle the UK’s e-waste crisis

Press Release Oct 08, 2025

Currys helps customers turn old tech trash into Christmas cash, as Cash for Trash vouchers double to £10

Stories & Insights Aug 19, 2025

How collaboration is driving forward our mission to give tech a longer life

Press Release Jul 24, 2025

Retail First: Currys Rolls Out Game-Changing AI Video Tech with Vyntelligence

Press Release Jun 11, 2025

Currys Continues to Curb Britain’s E-Waste Crisis with Boosted Cash for Trash

Press Release 30/04/2025

Currys Secures Spot in Prestigious ‘Climate Leaders’ Rankings

Press Release Mar 18, 2025

Currys to Support Cancer Research UK with Recycling Unwanted Tech

Press Release Feb 19, 2025

Currys and Deloitte Join Forces to Push Tech Recycling

Press Release Feb 06, 2025

Currys and Microsoft Press Play on Xbox Console Repairs

Press Release Aug 15, 2024

Currys and Fairphone bring award-winning modular smartphone to more UK consumers

Press Release May 30, 2024

Currys Becomes First Microsoft Retail Repair Partner in the UK

Stories & Insights Mar 11, 2024

Double-Win for Currys at the Annual Retail Week Awards

Press Release Mar 07, 2024

Currys Unveils ‘Trash Tycoon’ Fortnite Gaming Experience

Stories & Insights Feb 07, 2024

Meet the heroes vying to end throwaway culture by restoring broken tech otherwise binned

Stories & Insights Jan 29, 2024

RepairLive team always putting our customers first

Press Release 06/11/2023

Refurbished Revolution as Brits Buy into Second-hand Tech

Press Release 10/10/2023

Prime Minister Praises Currys for Giving Tech Longer Life

Press Release 25/07/2023

Currys, DPA and Computer Recyclers Launch Get Online @ Home Broadband & Discounted Devices Scheme

Press Release 12/07/2023

Currys and Samsung UK Unveil Trade-In Initiative

Press Release 24/04/2023

Currys Amongst Top 10 ‘Climate Leaders’ in Europe

Stories & Insights Apr 11, 2023

Retail Week Live – the highlights!

Stories & Insights Apr 06, 2023

Celebrating One Year of RepairLive

Press Release 27/03/2023

Currys pilots door-to-door collection service to help Brits recycle unwanted tech

Press Release 14/02/2023

Currys Takes Refurbished Tech Online

Press Release 23/01/2023

Currys Processes 750k Tonnes of E-Waste Since 2011