WEEE – a major problem
WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) is the fastest growing waste stream in the UK, growing by at least 5% each year.
We dispose of over 1.2 million tonnes of electrical and electronic waste every year in the UK from the public alone.
Each and every year, this is the equivalent of:
150,000 double decker buses
OR 164 Eiffel Towers
OR 200,000 African elephants
OR 444,444 4x4 vehicles
The amount of electrical waste created by members of the public in the UK would fill the new Wembley Stadium 6 times over every year!
The average UK citizen will discard 3.3 tonnes of WEEE in a life time – equal to one double decker bus for each and every family.
2 million TV sets alone are discarded every year.
Electronic waste is increasing 3 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 (buried in the ground in the UK) or being incinerated.
It has been estimated that landfill space in the UK will run out within the next 10 years. Recycling WEEE will bring significant benefits to our environment.
Where WEEE is not recycled, this waste can have negative impacts on soil, air and water quality which can lead to environmental damage, and have negative impacts on human and animal heath.
The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive encourages the recycling of WEEE in order to reduce landfill and to reduce the potential effects on human health and the environment caused by the presence of hazardous substances which are contained in many types of electrical equipment.
The WEEE directive does not apply to conventional filament lamps (bulbs) which can be treated as normal waste but it does cover all types of discharge lamps such as fluorescent tubes, compact fluorescents, compact fluorescent energy savers, SONs, Mercury, Metal Halide and other types of discharge lamps. All of these contain various substances such as mercury, lead, cadmium or sodium which are potentially hazardous and/or damaging to the environment.
From 1st April 2005 all such items are marked with a crossed-out wheeled-bin symbol to show that these items should not be disposed of as general waste.
Households are under no obligation to recycle their e-waste as far as the WEEE Directive is concerned. However, they will be "discouraged" from throwing away items that contain potentially harmful substances. Instead, they will be encouraged to use the recycling facilities being offered to them through the various schemes.
As a registered member of the DTS (the WEEE Distributor TakeBack Scheme), BrightGreenSun.co.uk is meeting the aims of the WEEE Regulations by making a financial contribution to the DTS which will be used to assist in the development of WEEE collection facilities throughout the UK. To view our Certificate of Membership please click here.
Please click here to find details of your nearest recycling location if you are purchasing replacement lamps and wish to recycle the old ones.
