Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EEE) represents a major and largely untapped opportunity to scale reuse, refurbishment and repair, supporting Scotland’s transition to a more circular economy.

To better understand how this potential can be realised, Zero Waste Scotland commissioned GC Insight, working in partnership with Resource Futures and Icaro Consulting, to assess the current EEE reuse landscape, identify barriers and opportunities, and recommend interventions to support sector growth.

Our Role:

Working with Zero Waste Scotland and project partners, GC Insight helped deliver a comprehensive evidence base on EEE reuse across Scotland. Through the project, we:

• Undertook a structured review of national and international evidence on EEE reuse, refurbishment and repair.
• Delivered quantitative and qualitative research with Scottish consumers to understand behaviours, attitudes and demand for reused electrical products.
• Engaged supply chain stakeholders and sector experts through interviews and workshops to identify key challenges and opportunities.
• Mapped the current EEE reuse landscape, highlighting existing strengths alongside areas with significant growth potential.
  Assessed the barriers affecting reuse across the system, including issues relating to policy, infrastructure, skills, data, quality assurance and consumer confidence.
• Provided an evidence-base to help prioritise interventions and support the mainstream adoption of EEE reuse.

Outcome:

The research demonstrated that Scotland has a strong foundation of existing reuse activity and untapped consumer demand, but that achieving significant growth will require coordinated action across multiple parts of the system.

The findings provide Zero Waste Scotland with a robust evidence base to identify priority products and intervention points, address critical evidence gaps, and shape future policy and investment decisions. The work also supports the design and testing of targeted interventions to make EEE reuse more mainstream, trusted and economically viable, helping accelerate Scotland's transition to a circular economy.

Find out more and access the report here.