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What exactly is WEEE recycling?
The evolution of WEEE recycling: important information about the WEEE program’s operation and advantages to you
The terms WEEE recycling and WEEE disposal may be familiar to you. You may have noticed the wheelie bin icon with a line through it. But do you understand what “WEEE” means or does? In this essay, we go through the background of WEEE recycling, its origins, operation, and significance.
What is recycling of WEEE?
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment, or WEEE, refers to electrical and electronic products that are being discarded. Therefore, “WEEE recycling” means recycling obsolete electrical products or parts. In addition, words like “WEEE collection” and “WEEE disposal” refer to the end-of-life management of any product, big or little, with a plug, wire, or battery.
What do the WEEE regulations seek to accomplish?
The primary goals of the WEEE recycling law are to address the electrical waste stream, which is the fastest-growing waste stream in the world, to reduce environmental harm, and to prevent a variety of valuable materials from losing their economic value forever.
How is WEEE regulation carried out?
The WEEE recycling program’s guiding idea is straightforward: if you manufacture or sell electrical goods, you are accountable for what happens to them when their useful lives are through. A specified quantity of product must be collected and recycled as a result, which is now 65% of the weight of the items that are placed on the market. If they fall short of the goals, a fee is paid into a fund that is used to enhance recycling services.
The system that controls how this works is pretty intricate. In essence, electrical product manufacturers join compliance programs that enter into agreements with local governments, retailers, and recyclers to handle the collection, weighing, and recycling.
The amount of electricals gathered from local governments and retailers is subsequently reported by these compliance programs to the Environment Agencies.
WEEE recycling history: where did WEEE recycling laws originate?
The WEEE standards have been in place for slightly over ten years. However, their beginnings can be traced back to the European Union’s (EU) efforts to get packaging manufacturers to assume liability for their waste in the middle of the 1990s.
The EU then took action to regulate dangerous materials in manufactured goods, such as lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), and cadmium (Cd), in the early 2000s. Electricals received attention at the same time. To hold producers accountable for handling the mounting mountain of waste electricals, the EU WEEE directive was developed.
In February 2003, the EU passed Directive 2012/19/EU on waste electrical and electronic equipment (the WEEE directive). It established targets for collection, recycling, and recovery of all sorts of electricals, starting at 4 kilogram of electricals per person per year.
The WEEE directive was converted into national law in the UK. Since 2007, producers, retailers, and municipal governments have been required by this regulation to collect, handle, and account for electrical waste.
It’s not only in the UK, either. The life cycle of electrical equipment in the European Union is presently governed by both European and national rules, from production to disposal.
What advantages may we draw from recycling WEEE?
The majority of us will note that recycling outdated electricals is becoming considerably simpler. It is now simpler and more easy to have our used electricals repurposed or recycled thanks to the increased number of collection locations and retailers offering collecting services. Finding your nearest electrical recycling facility is now simpler than ever thanks to the Recycle Your Electricals campaign recycling locator.
The outcome? More electrical garbage than ever before is being gathered and processed today. Which is good news for the environment and the economy because it results in less carbon emissions, less mining for raw materials, and less harm to communities and the environment.
