As smart homes become the norm, with a home office becoming an integral feature, many people depend on their PC, laptops and smartphones for work related comms, not just browsing FB Marketplace or ordering Uber Eats. A new study by Asurion Europe assesses the financial and environmental impact of investing in home tech protection. The research found that each UK customer could be saving over £400 on average by investing in tech cover and extending the life of smartphones, tablets or laptops by a year.
Insurance brands could use gadget claims as an opportunity to offer refurbished products, or authorised repair partner services.
Based on the Asurion calculations, the UK population could be saving over £18.8 billion by prolonging the lifetime of devices for an additional year and remembering to trade in their devices at the end of that year. This is equivalent to ten times the Government’s latest home energy efficiency boosting grant or just a little less than the Chancellor’s 2023 funding announcement for carbon capture, utilisation and storage.
Additionally, extending lifetime by a year reduces the carbon footprint of manufacturing replacement devices by an average 99 kilos CO2e per person, which scales up to over 4.5 million tonnes CO2e across the nation. This is equivalent to 0.9% of the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions.
Insurance brands who encourage their customers to extend gadget lifespan are also ticking their ESG box as well, so it’s win-win.
THE REPAIR/UPGRADE PROBLEM
However, a range of factors are holding customers back from extending device life, including the cost or inconvenience of repair, a lack of awareness of how to dispose of e-waste responsibly, or simply the desire to stay up to date with the latest models. Outdated tech is a problem; e-waste one of the fastest growing waste streams globally and the UK is reportedly generating the second-highest amount of e-waste per person, convenient and effective solutions for device repair and disposal are crucial.
Times are changing, with big phone networks now offering a decent range of refurbished tablets and smartphones, rather than only selling the latest models.
Gavin Miller, CEO, Asurion Europe comments, “Given our reliance on technology and our extensive use of digital products, we need to be savvier as a society about how to responsibly replace or dispose of devices. Tech protection can comprehensively cover device maintenance, installation, optimisation, repair and trade-in options – saving customers a neat sum while reducing environmental footprint. This is especially helpful in the current economic circumstances, as we all aim to make our money go further.”
The full report, including a breakdown of financial and environmental savings across UK regions, can be downloaded here: https://tradein.asurion.co.uk/ewastereport.
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