Recycling

WEEE – Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment

Updated: June 7, 2008 - 20:27 p.m. BST

About WEEE[1]

WEEE is the fastest growing waste stream in the UK, on the increase by at least 5% each year. We are disposing of over 1.2 million tonnes of electrical and electronic waste every year from the public alone, this would fill the new Wembley Stadium 6 times over. The average UK citizen will discard of 3.3 tonnes of WEEE in a lifetime – equal to one double-decker bus for each and every family in addition to 2 million television sets alone being discarded every year.

Electrical and Electronic Equipment(EEE) waste is increasing three times faster than average municipal waste and the EU estimates that WEEE currently accounts for 4% of total waste. Much of the UK’s electronic waste ends up in landfill sites where toxins put communities at risk. Failure to segregate any type of recyclable material in the home will usually result in items being disposed of in a landfill site and eventually being buried in the ground or being incinerated. It has been estimated that landfill space in the UK will run out within the next 10 years and recycling WEEE will have significant effects on the environment. When WEEE is not recycled the waste can have negative impacts on soil, air and water quality that can lead to environmental damage which can also bring about negative impacts on human and animal health.

WEEE Regulations

With effect from July 2007, the UK’s Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations require that all producers of electrical equipment are now obliged to pay for recycling of household electrical goods, where previously this bill was met by councils or items were not recycled at all. These regulations also require that all retailers both actively assist in delivering a UK wide WEEE collection infrastructure and encourage the participation of consumers in recycling electronic equipment.

What Can I Do?

Wheelie Bin Symbol

Look out for this symbol

You should look out for the WEEE Directive’s crossed out wheeled bin symbol on products and packaging as all new EEE should be marked with this symbol which aims to encourage you to separate out your WEEE and to discard it separately from other household waste.

The crossed out wheeled bin symbol is not intended to indicate that WEEE is banned from being disposed of as general waste, but intended when used with information from http://www.recycle-more.co.uk that recycling facilities are available throughout the UK.

Recycle

Electrical and Electronic waste is one of the fastest growing waste streams and much of it can be recycled and resources recovered to make new consumer goods. To hi-light to consumers of the collection methods available which in turn allow recycling to take place, all electrical items sold now carry the crossed out wheeled bin symbol. To ensure your waste electronics don’t contribute to damaging the environment, please visit http://www.recycle-more.co.uk and recycle today.

Please note that not all council sites are suitable to collect all types of waste electrical goods but to find out your nearest participating site (including other collection facilities that may not be operated by the council) please visit http://www.recycle-more.co.uk/banklocator/banklocator.aspx having your postcode ready.

Know the Legal Obligations of Retailers

Retailers (including mail-order and Internet) supplying new EEE have to ensure that WEEE from Consumers (i.e. private households) can be returned free of charge on a one-for-one, like-for-like basis and are obliged to inform Consumers about:

  • The need for separate collection of WEEE, and the high collection rates of WEEE for treatment, recovery and environmentally sound disposal.
  • Facilities available for the disposal of WEEE.
  • Their role in contributing to the reuse, recycling and other forms of recovery of WEEE under the WEEE regulations.
  • The potential impact to the environment and to human health, of hazardous substances contained within WEEE.
  • The meaning of the crossed out wheelie bin symbol.

Know the Compliance Options of Retailers

Retailers (including mail-order and Internet) have two options to comply with their legal obligations:

In-Store Take-Back

Retailers supplying new EEE have to ensure that WEEE from Consumers can be returned to them free of charge on a one-for-one basis. The WEEE returned should be of equivalent type to and should fulfil the same function as the new EEE purchased.

 When considering offering utilising free in store take back, please be aware of the following:

  • In-store take back must be for all types of EEE sold and must be available free of charge to customers.
  • WEEE returned need not have been purchased from the retailer to whom it is returned.
  • WEEE returned need not be identical to new EEE purchased, but of an equivalent type and function.
Join the Distributor Take Back Scheme (DTS)

The DTS is designed to meet the obligations of distributors (which includes Retailers) without the need to offer free in store take back. Instead of offering free in store back, distributors will make a financial contribution to the DTS which will be used to assist in the development of WEEE collection facilities throughout the UK.

Distributors joining the DTS will have their obligations met for the following three years from July 2007 and are not required to offer any form of free take back of WEEE until at least 2010.

Zomp and the WEEE Regulations

Currently the vast majority of Zomp’s sales to Consumers is via our online shop (http://www.zomp.net/shop) which makes it extremely difficult to run an In-Store Take-Back. So that you can get your waste electrical goods recycled, Zomp have joined the DTS scheme and therefore contributed towards a national fund to assist local councils to further develop their existing waste electronics collection facilities, which will in turn allow producers of this equipment to meet their obligations.

WEEE UK DTS Registration Number: 5628
DTS Registration Certificate is Available here.

Zomp’s Compliance with the UK WEEE Regulations Statement

In order to partially meet our obligations as a distributor as defined in the UK Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations (SI 2006 No. 3289 - 11 December 2006) (referred to hereafter as “the WEEE Regulations”), we have opted to become a full member of the Distributor Take back Scheme (DTS). Membership of the DTS is defined in regulation 35 of the WEEE Regulations and delivers exemption from the requirements of regulation 31 (to “ensure that WEEE from private households can be returned to him free of charge and on a one-to-one basis”) and regulation 34(1) (maintenance of records).

As a member of the DTS, we have made a financial contribution toward the development of the network of Designated Collection Facilities (DCFs) instead of offering in store take back of WEEE. This financial contribution is described in paragraphs 83 to 88 of the UK WEEE guidance, and has been used to improve the WEEE collection facilities located at Local Authority Civic Amenity sites.

In addition, through our support of the national recycling website, http://www.recycle-more.co.uk, we will also meet our obligations under regulation 33 to make information available to users of EEE in private households on -

the requirement on each Member State under Article 2 of the Directive to minimise the disposal of WEEE as unsorted municipal waste and to achieve a high level of collection of WEEE for treatment, recovery and environmentally sound disposal;

the collection and take back systems available to them;

their role in contributing to the reuse, recycling and other forms of recovery of WEEE under these Regulations;

the potential effects on the environment and human health as a result of the presence of hazardous substances in EEE; and

the meaning of the crossed out wheeled bin symbol.

WEEE UK DTS Registration Number: 5628
DTS Registration Certificate is Available here.

Summarised from information contained in (Valpak, 2007, p. 1)