A recent survey by Danish ICMIF member LB Forsiking has shown that many people would be happy to receive a recycled mobile phone from their insurance company as a replacement for one they are making a claim for. As many as 48% of the respondents in the survey stated that they would feel very good or good about having recycled or partially recycled items as a form of compensation from their insurance company.
“We can see that almost half are very positive about getting recycled or partially recycled things as a replacement. Only 16% say they want to feel bad about it and 9% say they want to feel very bad about it. So, there are twice as many who look positively at being offered recycled items,” says Anne Mette Kirkegaard, Claims Manager at LB Forsikring.
However, there is a slight difference in how positive you are towards the idea, depending on whether you are given the option to choose to have a recycled item or whether it is simply given to you with no other option. When asked how important it is for members that, for example, a mobile phone is replaced by a new one, as opposed to a used one in perfect condition, 33% answered that it is very important or important for them that the phone is new. While only 8% answer that it is not important at all.
Anne Mette Kirkegaard continued: “We then asked the members how many of them would choose a used mobile phone if they were given the choice themselves. Here, as many as 44% said they would choose the recycled option. It is very well connected with what we otherwise experience in compensation cases. Our members value freedom of choice when it comes to choosing replacements, so it is up to us to also give them alternative options for choosing other than just new things.”
When the same question is asked about car repairs, LB Forsiking says that its members are even more positive. Here, 16% would be very happy, and 28% would be happy that their car was repaired with recycled parts, at the workshop their insurance company sent them to, and as many as 45% would choose to have their car repaired with recycled parts if they could.
“We are already looking at different options for getting more recycling and recycling into our replacement flow, but it gives food for thought that the surveyed members are so positive about getting fully or partially recycled replacement items,” says Anne Mette Kirkegaard.
Kirkegaard continued: “At LB Forsikring we already have a collaboration with the Baisikeli bicycle shop. If the police find a stolen bicycle where we have already paid the compensation, we will get the bicycle. We then donate the recovered bicycles to Baisikeli, which has a project where used bicycles are repaired in Denmark and then sent to Africa. We also support Repair Cafe, which has local cafes around the country and teaches people how to repair things, instead of just throwing out and buying new, but there is definitely room for us to look at whether we can do more.”
Kirkegaard is keen to state that LB Forsikring also has a responsibility to spread more sustainable solutions for their members.
“Historically, as an insurance company we have helped to spread a culture that ‘it is only new that lasts’, because we have mostly replaced things with new. But if we are to succeed in making the planet more sustainable, as an insurance company we will also have to help change that attitude. Here, it naturally helps a lot that our members are positive about alternatives such as recycling,” says Anne Mette Kirkegaard.
The survey (in Danish) is available here.
