Privately Financed Change-out Programs Started by Jotul and NH Retailer

Two separate, privately financed, wood stove change-out programs were started this summer with the aim of selling more new stoves in the off-season and removing as many old, uncertified ones in the process.

Jotul’s national program has Jotul dealers give a $100 to $300 discount to consumers who turn in an old, uncertified stove. The discount is funded half by Jotul and half by the retailer. Consumers can drop their stoves off at an authorized Jotul dealer or a recycling center and provide the receipt to the retailer to prove the old stove has been retired. 450 out of 1,000 Jotul dealers in the U.S. and Canada are participating in the program so far. Jotul is also donating $10 to the American Lung Association for every uncertified stove that it is taken out of circulation.

Fireplace Village, a New Hampshire hearth retailer with four locations, is providing an even more

generous offer to consumers. They are giving a $500 discount to consumers who trade in an old, uncertified wood stove. They have also discounted their removal fee to $100 if the consumer wants them to remove the old stove.

Change-out programs typically are undertaken mainly with government funding and often with in-kind assistance from the stove industry. Those change-out programs tend to provide higher rebates or discounts and also often have high overhead costs to manage the program. These privately funded and managed change-out programs are likely to result in the removal of hundreds of old stoves this summer and help families heat with cleaner, more efficient stoves. This could be a program that other manufacturers and retailers use as a model.

Great Charity and PR Opportunity for Hearth Stores

An Arizona hearth stove store is running a promotion where customers purchasing a new stove are given the chance to trade in their old one for a tax deduction.  The old stoves are then donated to local families in need.  We at the Alliance think this is a great idea, so long as the old stove is EPA certified!  Assuming the hearth store gives these older stoves to a charity, and the donation receipt is from that charity, the customer can still get a decent tax deduction based on value of stove, even if the stove is disabled and given to a steel recycler.  If this could catch on nationally, stove retailers could provide a great service to the air we breathe and help get their customers a nice tax break.  And since the 10% federal tax credit is all but certain to disappear in 2012, this a great way to extend some tax help to customers.  The Alliance would be happy to help try to expand what this Arizona store has started.  Anyone interested?


Here is the transcript of the ad:

Want to stay warm this winter and make a difference at the same time?  How?  When you upgrade your home by adding or replacing your heat source with a new wood, gas or pellet burning stove and donate your old stove at Roof Dancers, the warmest little stove shop in Northern Arizona, you get a huge tax credit.  Roof Dancers will donate your old stove, on your behalf, to a Northern Arizona Outreach providing quality alternate sources of heat to needy families.  You get the tax credit and a family who can put your used quality wood, gas or pellet burning stove to good use gets the warmth, a real win-win.  Roof Dancers is the area expert on long burning wood stoves. Stoves that heat evenly, last longer and conserve energy while helping the environment.  Ask a friend, chances are they got their stove from Roof Dancers.  Stop by and check out the all new Blaze King, the only wood stove in the market that looks great and can up to 50 hours on a single fill of wood. There’s nothing like it, Roof Dancers, on 4th street, next door to Sonic.

Featured Opinion: Product Stewardship and Pellet Bags

Green heat is great – except where it generates waste in another area, such as pellet bags. What is your industry doing in terms of producer responsibility when it comes to pellet bags? The Chittenden Solid Waste District manages the waste and recyclables for a quarter of the population of Vermont. We get calls all the time about recycling pellet bags. After all, the bags all have the recycling symbol printed on them. As you must know, not everything with a recycling symbol stamped on it are actually recyclable at all or in most regions. Here, we have to tell your customers’ customers to reuse them or throw them in the trash.

That’s because filmy plastic is difficult for single-stream recycling facilities to sort out. That’s also because residue from the pellets is considered contamination by recycling markets, and we don’t have the staff, time, or facilities to rinse them all out, let them dry, and get them to market. I would venture to guess that most of your markets are in the same situation, where they cannot accept bags for recycling. Another reason is that some bags are made of laminated layers of plastic(s), which is also unacceptable in most markets. We simply do not have the resources to set up a program for accepting all the types of products that producers market.

Product stewardship is becoming less of a buzz word and more of the law of the land these days. To force computer manufacturers to produce products containing fewer toxins and more easily recyclable, laws have been passed to require them to take back their own products in several states. Same thing with some mercury-containing products, such as thermostats and CFLs. Same thing with paint. Same thing with a growing list of products, spurred on by municipalities whose resources are exhausted from being expected to manage myriad products that were not designed with responsible disposal in mind.

Why not get ahead of the game and come up with a product stewardship program in your industry. Have your vendors accept the bags back from customers and back-haul them to a central location where you can prepare them for recycling, and find a recycler that will accept contaminated bags?

If your efforts are geared towards making pellet stoves ubiquitous, you must take responsibility for the waste you are causing people to generate as a result.

Regards,

Clare Innes

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Clare Innes

Marketing & Communications Coordinator

Chittenden Solid Waste District

Phone: 802-872-8100 ext. 207

Williston, VT