Under the guidelines and definitions of the Environment Agency enforced (SEPA in Scotland and EHS in Northern Ireland) Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive, companies in the electronics sector such as Farnell can be considered both “distributors” (provide electrical and electronic equipment - known as ‘EEE’ - to end users) and  ‘producers’ (manufacture, import, re-brand, distance sell / export).

This means that distributors must take financial responsibility for the sound environmental collection, treatment, recovery, recycling and disposal of an equivalent amount of WEEE to that which they produce.

Obligations under the WEEE directive,  came into effect on July 1st this year, forcing manufacturers and ‘producers’ of electrical and electronic equipment  to think way beyond when product leaves their factory gates. Making them consider the impact of products they develop after they have reached the end of their useful working lives.

Read more in Gary Nevison's blog the Directive Decoder.

Unsustainable wastefulness
The fact remains that the UK has an incredibly poor set of overall statistics when it comes to waste management and recycling. Households in the UK produce a total of 29.1 million tonnes of waste annually, of which a mere 18% is recycled and around 70% ends up in landfill; other EU countries do far better recycling up to 33%.

This state of affairs is unsustainable with new landfill sites being created and filled at an alarming rate. The consumer will now be encouraged to recycle rather than blindly putting everything in the same bin to make the trip to landfill.

When it comes to WEEE, the UK throws away five million TVs and two million home computers each year. This constitutes a small part of the total one million plus tonnes of WEEE, 93 million items of EEE, that goes to landfill.

Inefficient recycling then causes the loss of around 400,000 tonnes of ferrous metal, 200,000 tonnes of plastic, 100,000 tonnes of copper and 50,000 tonnes each of aluminium and glass. Most of this is recoverable so it isn’t difficult to see the importance and positive impact the new directive will have on how our industry operates with respect to the environment and the re-use of materials.

What producers need to do
For producers like Farnell, the impact of the WEEE directive goes way beyond offering its customers the crossed out wheelie bin symbols that identify product placed on the market after 13th August 2005 and classified as “new” WEEE   Producers in the electronics sector are obliged to report either directly or through an Environment Agency approved compliance scheme, the weight of WEEE they have placed on the market, in each product category, on a quarterly basis, as well as retaining records of direct sales to end users in other Member States.

They also need to arrange collection, treatment and environmentally sound disposal of an equivalent amount of WEEE, and declare weights collected and recycled, with evidence supplied to the appropriate authorities. All EEE produced and shipped must be clearly marked with the crossed out wheelie bin symbol and producers must advise recyclers if any hazardous substances are present in their products. Records for all of this activity must be retained for a minimum of four years.

Producers of electronic equipment have always had to design for ease, economy and speed of assembly. The WEEE directive means that it is also now in their interest to carefully consider how products are taken apart at end-of-life. Recycling is a cost that can be significant and now has to be paid for by the producer – usually the manufacturer or importer.

The cost can be influenced by the equipment design although whether a manufacturer can fully realise the benefits largely depends on whether they can collect and recycle their own equipment at end-of-life. - There are still benefits when collection and recycling is carried out by an Environment Agency compliance scheme but they are limited.

Some may say that the directive has missed the opportunity to make manufacturers more responsible for their own products by allowing them to join a compliance scheme. Producers with better designed products are financially penalised as savings from eco-friendly products, which can be expensive to develop, benefit all makers.

Another intention of the EU Directive was to make it easier for everyone to recycle, with retailers offering a take back service for old products when you buy a new product, with a similar function. However, the directive allows retailers to contribute to the upgrade of civic amenity sites instead, an option that more than three quarters of them have taken.

The main cost of recycling is usually labour which is required for dismantling electrical and electronic equipment. Some examples of good design for ease of dismantling include the use of plastic clips rather than screws, and avoiding metal inserts in plastic mouldings – as these reduce the value of the plastic component to zero.

Finally, it is not clear whether or not the price of EEE will go up to cover these recycling costs. No-one knows, at this stage, what EEE will come back and this will have to be reviewed after a period of activity when the average cost per unit can be calculated.

Gary Nevison is Customer Support Manager, Legislation and Environmental Affairs, Farnell

See also: Electronics Weekly's WEEE Directive In Full Force, a roundup of content related to the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment regulations.