Fair recycling starts with the purchase

Most people know it: when you buy a new electrical device, you pay an advance recycling contribution, or ARC for short. It's included in the price and later funds the proper recycling of the device once it's reached the end of its life. What fewer people realise, though, is that the ARC isn't automatically included with every device.

For more than 35 years, Switzerland has had a sophisticated, fair system for recycling electrical and electronic equipment. The ARC works on a pay-as-you-go basis, similar to the Swiss state pension (AHV). The contributions paid today don't fund your own device tomorrow, but rather the recycling of devices that have already reached the end of their life today. But if, for example, you order your electrical device from a foreign online retailer, the ARC is usually not included. Not all Swiss retailers join the system either. We call such providers "non-system participants". They deliberately opt out of the system.

The problem is simple to explain. These devices often still end up in the SENS recycling system anyway, because at the collection stage it's practically impossible to tell whether an ARC was paid for a given device or not. In the end, it's everyone else who foots the bill – that is, consumers and the manufacturers or importers who did pay the ARC correctly.

How to play it safe

Anyone who buys from a non-system participant benefits from the existing recycling system without contributing to it themselves. The good news is that you can easily check this yourself before buying. The ARC partner list shows you whether a retailer or manufacturer is one of the SENS partners. If not, you can pay the ARC voluntarily after the fact here. That way, you can be sure your device will later be recycled correctly and with proper funding in place.

One more reason to take a closer look

Buying from registered Swiss retailers doesn't just pay off when it comes to recycling. These companies are also regularly checked by independent bodies. The same often can't be said for many low-cost providers from third countries. Recent tests show, for example, that a large proportion of electric toys bought from such sources fail to meet current safety standards. So it's worth looking twice at where a device comes from.

What you can do as a consumer

Buy consciously: buying your electrical devices from an ARC partner supports companies that take part in SENS eRecycling's controlled recycling system.

Pay voluntarily: if a device was bought abroad or from a non-system participant, the ARC can be paid voluntarily afterwards.

Dispose of it properly regardless: no matter where an electrical device was bought, it belongs in recycling at the end of its life – never in household waste.

Switzerland's recycling system only works as well as it does because it's supported by everyone who benefits from it. Non-system participants call this principle into question. All the more reason for policymakers, retailers and consumers to pull together and counter this trend.