While consumers are changing their shopping habits for kitchen appliances based on green credentials, less than half are aware of the energy efficiency of their home entertainment products.
New research conducted by Loudhouse research consultancy and commissioned by Sony UK surveyed 1,000 consumers in order to find the effect of environmental issues on buying habits during the recession.
It found that only 43 percent of people buying home electrical products were aware of their green credentials compared to 71 percent for kitchen appliances.
Awareness of the energy efficiency of home entertainment products varies depending on the product itself; for example, under half of television purchasers are aware of how ‘green’ the TV they are buying is, and less than a quarter of those buying games consoles give energy efficiency any consideration during the purchasing process.
The A-G energy efficiency rating of all kitchen appliances could go some way to explaining the large gap. These ratings give the energy efficiency of an appliance on an A-G scale. Although projects such as the European Commission's Eco-Labelling of products aim to increase awareness of green credentials of products, only six percent of sales assistants made any reference to the green credentials of a home entertainment product.
Paula Owen, Head of Knowledge Services at the Energy Saving Trust, commented: "It's easy to lose track at home as to which products are hiking up your energy bills. With UK households spending around £3 billion a year on electricity bills to run consumer electronics products, people need a quick and easy way of knowing which products are energy efficient and therefore cheaper to run."
The research also looked at how often UK consumers recycle electrical products. Whereas 52 percent of kitchen appliances are recycled, over a quarter of consumers surveyed said they hang on to their old electrical products, such as laptops and televisions.
“The survey shows that one in five households keep old TVs elsewhere in the house when a new one is purchased,” said Jessica Simpson from Sony UK. “There are an average of 2.3 TV sets per household in the UK, and approximately 26 million households. If, over the next three years, one in five of these households buys a new TV and chooses to keep their old TV elsewhere in the house rather than recycle it, we are potentially looking at an unused UK TV population of more than five million units by 2012.
“And with the imminent digital switchover driving many consumers to upgrade their TVs, this hoarded hardware could be put to far better use if it was recycled.”
Under the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE Directive), all electrical retailers are required by law to recycle any unwanted electrical products returned to their premises.
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