ASTANA – The government of Kazakhstan and the UNDP, in partnership with a few other local companies, are offering residents of Astana and Almaty the opportunity to recycle their old household appliances free of charge and get a 10 percent discount on a new energy-efficient refrigerator, representatives of the organisations announced at an Oct. 2 press conference in Astana.
Photo credit: iappliancerepairtoronto.ca.
The discount programme started Oct. 1 and will run until Dec. 1 of this year.
Those who join the programme can receive an additional discount of 40,000 tenge (US$110.10) to 60,000 tenge (US$165.20) if they buy an energy-efficient fridge from Bosch Company, one of the programme’s partners.
The programme was launched to raise awareness about energy-efficient home appliances and encourage an eco-friendly lifestyle in general.
“As experience shows, not many people are interested in recycling electric home equipment correctly… They dispose of them in trash bins, absolutely not thinking about their fate, though all of this waste with all its components can be used as secondary material,” said Executive Director of Operator ROP (principle of extended producer commitments) Assel Dangilova.
Last year, Operator ROP recycled 2,000 tonnes of electric home appliances. Yet, according to statistics, the volume of electrical machinery being disposed of improperly is close to 135,000 tonnes, and its real volume might be even greater. Operator ROP understands that consumers find it troublesome to transfer bulky machinery. Therefore, they will not only recycle old household appliances – they’ll pick them up for free. The service can be ordered through a call centre and by filling out a form on their website. Operator ROP has also granted the part of the certificates to Technodom and Mechta, so that people can get the same discount when buying a more eco-friendly refrigerator.
Partner companies have allocated around 33 million tenge (US$90,859) to the programme. The discounts are given for energy efficient refrigerators of category A++ and A+++ bought in partner shopping centres Technodom and Mechta.
The energy efficiency of an appliance is indicated by a ranking from G to A+++, with G being the least energy efficient and A+++ the most efficient.
According to Ramazan Zhampiisov, director of the UNDP’s Sustainable Development and Urbanisation Department, the project will also check that the actual energy-efficiency of the appliances matches that indicated on their labels.
