News: Recycling waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE)

We’re all getting used to recycling waste items such as paper, bottles and tin cans in the correct recycling bins, however there are some items that need special attention, such as the recycling of electrical items such as:

Laptops, computers
MP3 players, sound equipment
Light bulbs, batteries
Mobile phones, tablets
Wiring
TVs, DVD players

Unfortunately you can’t simply stick these items in your standard recycling bins, so here we look at where they should go.

Facts about WEEE?

Anything that needs plugs or batteries in order to work is classes as waste electrical and electronic equipment, which is becoming one of the fastest growing waste streams in Europe. Around one million tonnes of WEEE is thrown away every year – over 75% of this ends up in landfill.

But electrical waste can be recycled, so it’s important to play our part and not simply throw old appliances out.

Recycling electrical and electronic waste

Regulations came into effect in 2007 with the intention to boost WEEE recycling rates, now retailers have to provide a way of returning end-of-life electricals and take responsibility for reusing or recycling them.

We also have a responsibility of recycling waste electricals, ways of doing this are:

Recycling old electricals: hire a skip, take to the tip or return the items to the retailer.
Giving unwanted electricals away – sometimes other people or charities may find a use for your unwanted electricals, this keeps them away from landfill.
Investing in electricals with longer warranties, this means that they are less likely to break and the retailer has a responsibility to dispose of them.

Recycling WEEE

If you only have one item that’s not too bulky then you can simply take it to your local household waste recycling centre.

However, if there is a lot of electrical waste then you can hire a skip, with larger quantities this can be by far the easiest option. A good skip hire company will recycle WEEE for you, along with other recyclable waste, and relieve you of the hassle of transporting everything yourself.

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