More manufacturers are adhering to a new code aimed at tackling the UK's e-waste mountain, writes Tom Maxwell
IT'S A truth universally acknowledged that technology has a very limited shelf life. No sooner have you invested in the latest fancy computer, which does everything but make you a cup of tea, than a new and improved model is rolling off the productio
n line.
Keeping up with technology can be an expensive business and not every company is in a position to constantly invest in the latest models. However, there usually comes a time when persisting with coal-powered computers is no longer profitable.
Upgrading your company's technology not only carries a financial price, but also an ecological one. Not so long ago, Britain's landfill sites were overflowing with discarded monitors, keyboards and printers.
Electrical goods are the fastest growing waste stream in the UK, growing by 5 per cent each year, while the amount of electrical waste we generate in a 12-month period is enough to fill Wembley Stadium six times.
To combat the effects of the so-called "e-waste mountain", the WEEE Directive (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) became law in the UK last year. Through the directive, producers are responsible for financing the collection, treatment, and recovery of waste electrical equipment, and distributors are obliged to allow consumers to return their waste equipment free of charge.
The major electronics manufacturers and importers are signed up to producer responsibility through producer compliance schemes. As of the end of last year, the number of registered companies had risen to more than 4,000.
Meanwhile, retailers have a responsibility to inform customers at point of sale how they can dispose of WEEE and the environmental benefit of doing so.
In theory, consumers should find it easier to recycle their waste goods and dispose of them at their nearest designated collection facility.
The government has recently announced plans to focus on increasing business and consumer awareness about separately collecting WEEE from other forms of waste.
The benefits of the WEEE initiative are obvious, not least in the fact that producer responsibility has resulted in fewer incidence of fly-tipping involving electrical equipment.
During the WEEE system's first six months of operation, 45,000 tonnes of televisions, which include computer monitors, were diverted from landfill.
BERR (the department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform) is responsible for transposing the directive into UK law, while DEFRA (the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) is responsible for ensuring the permitting of authorised treatment facilities for the directive.
North of the Border, the agency responsible for enforcing the directive's producer obligations is the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA). Patrick McKell, the agency's senior environment protection officer, says: "SEPA has been actively engaging with businesses to identify whether they need to comply with the WEEE regulations. SEPA is keen to provide help and advice to businesses and to avoid the need for any enforcement action. However, if it was required, action would be taken under the producer responsibility provisions of the WEEE legislation."
Back in 2004, Robert Wilson, an environmental consultant from Midlothian, got ahead of the game by setting up WEEEP (the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Partnership).
The partnership's aim was to encourage businesses to donate computers and IT equipment that would otherwise have gone to landfill and put them at the heart of a scheme designed to help the whole community. Computers were recycled using modern components and then given to low-income families. At the same time, Wilson and his team used the recycled hardware to set up IT training courses in Dalkeith, allowing people to conduct their own PC repairs.
"It was designed to help vulnerable families or those on low incomes who couldn't afford a computer," says Wilson. "We were essentially using what would otherwise have been thrown away as rubbish to help bridge the digital divide."
In the first compliance period (1 July 2007 – 1 July 2008) since the WEEE Directive was established in this country, the UK exceeded the EU collection target of 4kg per capita per year with a rate of 6kg.
Earlier this year, minister of state for energy Malcolm Wicks challenged industry representatives to raise collection levels to 10kg by the end of next year. He called the 6kg collection rate "an impressive achievement" and added: "It is important we now explain the WEEE system more clearly to the public through a consumer campaign and we intend to embark on this toward the end of this year. Consumers should find it much easier to recycle and dispose of their electrical and electronic waste now."
Wicks also reinforced the importance of an effective producer compliance system. He said: "I cannot and will not let any producer compliance scheme running with its own agenda threaten the whole system and we will be working with the enforcement authorities to ensure that those that wish to distort the system are dealt with effectively.
"All producers must play their part and schemes should work with local authorities, and with the reuse and the treatment sectors to share best practice and find efficiencies. This is what I expect to see going forward."
Britain is also expanding its WEEE treatment and processing infrastructure, investing more than £35m in new facilities since last January.
The full article contains 892 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
