The European Union's Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive came into force in the UK from January 2007 in order to help reduce the amount of electrical waste being produced and encourage the reuse and recovery of e-waste.
When a business produces waste, for example redundant I.T. equipment, they have to ensure that this equipment is properly treated and where possible, recycled. The Legislation seeks to encourage collection, reuse, recovery, recycling and environmentally sound disposal when required. Companies who opt for a proactive approach to embracing the Legislation in innovative ways, such as through reuse are not only complying but exceeding environmental requirements in a socially responsible manner.
This EU legislation restricts the use of hazardous substances in electrical and electric equipment and promoting the collection and recycling of such equipment.
The legislation provides for the creation of collection schemes so consumers can return their used e-waste. The objective of these schemes is to increase the recycling and/or re-use of such products. It also requires heavy metals such as lead, mercury, cadmium, and chromium and flame retardants such as polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) or polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) to be substituted by safer alternatives.
Despite such rules on collection and recycling only one third of electrical and electronic waste in the European Union is reported as appropriately treated and the other two thirds are going to landfills and potentially to sub-standard treatment sites in or outside the European Union. The collection target of 4 kg per person per year does not properly reflect the situation in individual Member States.
When businesses produce waste, including unwanted I.T. equipment,they have a range of responsibilities they must comply with. These include complying with the requirements of Duty of Care, and if they are disposing of hazardous waste (such as CRT monitors or UPS batteries), they may need to register as a producer under the Hazardous Waste Regulations.
DOT-COMmunICaTions is fully compliant with the WEE Directive and we currently do everything possible to minimise our impact on the environment. We recycle any piece of I.T. equipment we collect but cannot reuse and we organise collections so that our transport is used to their maximum capacity.
We DO NOT ship computers overseas under any circumstances, as too much I.T. equipment sent abroad end up as toxic waste in poorer countries which have become the dumping ground for massive quantities of hazardous and polluting electronic junk. Illegal trade of electrical and electronic waste to non-EU countries continues to be widespread and the methods used in poorer countries to extract valuable metals from e-waste pose major environmental and health risks to the inhabitants.
International Agencies have documented thousands of people, particularly in Africa and Asia—entire families, from young to old—engaged in dangerous practices like burning computer wire to expose copper, melting circuit boards in pots to extract lead and other metals, or dousing the boards in powerful acid to remove gold to the detriment of their health and physical safety. The air near some electronics salvage operations have been shown to contain the highest amounts of dioxin measured anywhere in the world. The soil becomes saturated with the chemical, a probable carcinogen that may disrupt endocrine and immune function. High levels of flame retardants called PBDEs—common in electronics, and potentially damaging to fetal development even at very low levels—turned up in the blood of the electronics workers.
We only use UK-based, Environment-Agency approved, recovery agencies to handle the recovery from any electronic equipment components we recycle.
A professional and established company like ourselves can help businesses like yours to comply with the requirements of the WEEE Regulations. Why not give us a call?
To see the full EU WEEE Directive please click here.
To view the directive you will need
