WEEE (Computer) recycling toolkit
IT-Green is a (Computer / telecoms recycling) (WEEE compliant) recycling company, covering the whole of the UK. It currently operates with a view to provding UK businesses with a safe (licenced and trackable) and secure (certified confidential waste destruction) method of disposing of their IT (e-waste) hardware. Directors anticipate Authorised Treatment Facility status (ATF) by Oct 2008 and AATF (Approved Authorised treatment facility) by Jan 2009. If you're a manufacturer of eee, you need the latter (through a PCS- Producer compliance scheme). If you are a personal user (member of the general public) wanting to recycle your hardware, you can drop it off with us (in Cambridge) or search for a DCF (Designated collection facility)
Thursday 21 August 2008, 2:13 PM
Is the WEEE directive in trouble?
WEEE reprocessors have attractedd large investments and a number of them are quite literally finding there's no WEEE to process. With infrastructure investments heading into seven figures, they're finding that there's no recouping their investments.
The biggest issue is the waste stream itself. In addition to a lack of waste comming from the consumer via local authorities and over to the processing plants, many have not been able to drum up the trade needed to support such huge investments.
There's plenty of WEEE out there- the fact of the matter is, the investment is top heavy- in the processing plants, with next to no investment in infrastructure for dealing with the small, numerous waste streams. A good analogy is a River, which starts in loads of trubitarys.
PreviousComments on this post
Hey Richard
Interesting views on the WEEE directive - given that it took the UK so long to actually enact it - nearly two years later than some member countries.
I recently received some information from analyst Gartner which is actually more robust than than the usual analyst chin-rubbing in that they submitted questions to Commissioner for Information Society and Media Viviane Reding and to Commissioner for the Environment Stavros Dimas.
The answers are slightly obtuse - well what else would you expect but there seems to be some admission that WEEE is taking longer to bite than expected and that the EU isn't ruling out giving it some more teeth.
Gartner:
How well do you believe the Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS)and the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE; see Note 2) are working?Where are the shortcomings, and what changes need to be made? Where do you feel that additional regulations (for example, of devices and equipment) would encourage energy efficiency (such as mobile chargers, PCs and so on), and what form should such regulationstake?
European Commissioners:
Although it is difficult to assess accurately the impact of RoHS, given that the substance ban entered in force in July 2006 and data from industry and market surveillance activities are still rather scarce, it is estimated that RoHS has already prevented thousands of tons of hazardous substances from being used in electrical and electronic products, thus contributing to qualitative waste prevention.
Industry has to a large extent completed its adaptation efforts, and regulatory measures takingRoHS as an example are proliferating worldwide. EU Member States began implementing the directive on the waste of electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) in August 2005, but it is not yet fully operational in all of them. When fullyimplemented, consumers will be able to return their end-of-life products to producers free of charge, while producers — which will finance the operation — will in turn send the collected electric and electronic waste for treatment, recycling, recovery or disposal in an environmentally friendly manner.
According to 2005 figures, the WEEE Directive has enabled the collection ofaround 2.2 million tons of electric and electronic waste throughout the European Union. This number is expected to rise to 5.3 million tons per year once all systems are in full operation. For both WEEE and RoHS, in the context of a possible review, the Commission services are investigating possibilities for further enhancing their environmental and health benefits, as well as for easier and more-harmonized implementation and reduction of overall cost.
Andrew,
Interestingly enough, I've been speaking to contacts at the Environment Agency in the UK and there's talk of a change in tactics on the enforcement front. The view of the Agency is that consultation work (advising companies licenced to recycle waste) is to be dropped in preference to Enforcement action and policing. Whether this carries though is another matter, but there's certainly an increased policing of WEEE export and a number of Electrical/ electric traders have been "politely" asked to join compliance schemes.
Similarly, there appears to be enforcement action being taken against Computer retailers/ I.T support companies- we even know of one support company that faced direct enforcement action after having hired a skip and throwing the obsolete I.T in it, out the front of their offices!
With regard to your final paragraph (2.2 million tons of WEEE in the EU recovered during 2005). It's a bit of a shocker and puts the whole idea in persepective. Basically, the UK isn't doing that bad, given the fact that we have been set a target of 4kgs per head per annum. With 60 million people in the UK, our quota would exceed the volumes recovered in the whole of mainland Europe during 2005 (Out of interest, don't we get fined by the EU for not meeting our targets?!?)
Richard
