Waste Electrical and Electronic
Equipment (WEEE) Information Pack
Waste Electrical and Electronic
Equipment (WEEE) Information Pack
What’s WEEE?
WEEE stands for Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment
Introduction
What is Electrical and Electronic Equipment?
The legal definition in the UK of
Electrical and Electronic Equipment
(EEE) is products that are dependent
on electric currents or electromagnetic
fields for their basic function – if an
item has batteries or needs to be
plugged into a power socket to work
then it is considered to be an EEE
item. For example, mobile phones,
televisions and computers.
EEE is taking a more important role
in our lives as it gets smarter and we
become better at developing and designing it. We are now using multiple pieces of EEE
every day and this seems likely to increase, with the average person in the UK buying three
new electrical items every year.
As we use so many electrical items, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) has
become increasingly commonplace, and continues to rise. This can be a problem as many
people don’t realise that electrical items can be recycled or re-used, even if they are broken,
so lots go to landfill.
In January 2007, the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations came into force
with the aim to reduce the amount of this waste going to landfill and improve recovery and
recycling rates. To do this, manufacturers and importers of products had to agree to collect
and process some of the WEEE that had been produced. Of the WEEE collected in this way
75% was re-used or processed to recover useful materials.
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How is Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EEE)
produced?
What are rare Earth
elements?
A rare earth element (REE) or rare
earth metal (REM), as defined by
IUPAC, is one of a set of 17 chemical
elements in the periodic table.
EEE is made of raw materials, recycled materials or a combination of both. A raw material is
the most basic material from which a product can be made. In WEEE these might be:
►►
Crude oil: The most common raw material of plastic is crude oil.
►►
Metals: Metals such as aluminium, iron, copper and even the rare earth metals are
elements, and are found in ore that are mined out of the ground.
►►
Sand: Normal sand (silicon dioxide) is the most common raw material used to make
glass, although some special forms can be made with other substances.
Where are the rare Earth
elements found in EEE?
In a typical mobile phone there can be up
to 62 different rare earth elements and 12
of these currently have no alternatives!
Colour screens, circuit boards, speakers and
vibration units in your phone are all full of rare
earth elements.
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The Lifecycle of Electrical and Electronic Items
At the moment, most electrical and electronic
items are made without recycling in mind. They
are built, used and thrown away:
A more environmentally friendly way of making
electrical and electronic items is to re-use
recycled materials:
The plastic, metal
or glass materials
are made
The plastic, metal
or glass materials
are made
A new item is
made out of these
materials
A new item is
made out of these
materials and
from recycled
materials
The item breaks
or gets out of
date and is
thrown away into
a big hole in the
ground or to an
incinerator where
it is burned in a
big fire
The item breaks
or gets out of
date and is
thrown away
The item is
reused, repaired
or recycled
This means the item NEVER has to be thrown away because it gets recycled back into new electrical
and electronic things!
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How can we reduce the amount of electronic and electric
equipment we waste?
The Waste Hierarchy
The increase in usage, along with the speed at which new and updated products are being released
creates the problem of what to do with old products. The Waste Hierarchy gives guidance on what we
should be doing with our WEEE for the minimum environmental impact.
Reduce
Reduce the amount of EEE bought and used or waste created (through better product care).
Repair
Mend broken EEE instead of buying new (remember to be safe if attempting
to mend EEE, unplug and remove batteries and if in doubt don’t try it).
Reuse
Give or sell unwanted EEE to others (always seek
parent’s permission first and remove personal data).
Recycle
Take WEEE to collection points for recycling
(recycling centres, electrical shops may
have collection points).
Dispose
This is the last resort as
sending it to landfill or
incineration is the least
environmentally
efficient
option.
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How is WEEE recycled?
Collection
Take WEEE to recycling centres in your local area (find your nearest with the Recycle Now locator
tool). Some shops offer free recycling schemes or take back options
Recycling process
Products can be recycled in a slow or a fast way:
►►
Slow recycling
Products are dismantled by humans so components can be reused.
o Gives high quality recycling but it is slow, costly and time intensive.
o Dismantling needs to be done by humans because machines cannot cope with the range
of different products. Machines can be programmed to do simple repetitive tasks but are
currently unable to think and solve problems themselves.
o Often used for specific items when components have a value ,such as with computers.
►►
Fast recycling
This is the preferred option as it is fast and can involve machines for more efficiency.
o Pre-sort: Removes some components that go through different processes such as leads,
monitors, batteries and capacitors. Products such as fridges and freezers contain potentially
harmful gases as well as compressors that are removed under safe conditions and processed
while any leftover parts carry on through the process.
o Dismantling: Reducing products to components either by course shredding or, in the case of
Sweeep Kuusakoski, products are placed into a giant drum and spun around so they hit each
other, dismantling in the process.
o Sort: Removal by hand of valuable resources, such as circuit boards, and potentially
dangerous components, such as batteries and capacitors.
o Shredding: The components are now finely shredded before being mechanically sorted.
o Ferrous: Magnets pick up and remove ferrous metals (containing iron which is magnetic) for
melting down and recycling.
o Non-ferrous: Spinning magnets propel aluminium and copper away using eddy currents
for melting down and recycling (eddy current are loops of electric current that change the
magnetic field in the conductor).
o Plastics: Plastic is left which can then be recycled.
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Faulty goods: Consumer Rights Act 2015 states that
products must last a reasonable amount of time.
If you return a faulty product within six months to the
store where it was brought, the store must prove it
wasn’t faulty when you brought it in order not to fix it
or provide a replacement.
Repair by experts: Companies can
be found who will repair your EEE.
A quick search online around your
area will show you but try to go with
recommendations from friends you
trust.
How can we reuse EEE?
►►
Ask friends and family if they would like your unwanted electrical items.
►►
Ask parents to sell them at car boots, nearly new and bring and buy sales.
►►
Advertise online for someone to take the EEE away or sell it.
►►
Parents can place adverts in local newspapers or some shops exchange EEE for cash
►►
Mobile phones and tablets can be exchanged for gift vouchers or cash through a number of
online sites, for example https://www.freecycle.org/ and https://ilovefreegle.org/.
Before doing this, make sure that you have removed anything private, e.g. personal data held on your
mobile phone.
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MYTHBUSTER
Can you work out what is myth and what is fact?
Myth
Only some of the valuable Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) components are
removed before the rest is dumped in landfill.
Truth
The ‘Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations 2013’ became law on the 1st
January 2014 (replacing previous legislation). These regulations state that for WEEE, reuse of the
product or components should be considered first and where this is not preferable, high levels of
recovery and recycling should be achieved. It also gives a list of components that must be removed
so that they can be used more readily.
Myth
You can’t recycle the plastic on WEEE as it’s different to the other plastic.
Truth
It is true that a lot of the plastics used in EEE have flame retardants added (known as
‘brominated’) so that the EEE is more protected. However, there are many ways in which these
plastics can be recycled and the only time when this is not possible is when brominated plastics
have contaminated other plastics at a low level. There are a range of less eco-efficient waste
management options available, including incineration with energy recovery.
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Myth
Our WEEE is shipped off to a developing country where it is dismantled with fire causing great
harm to those involved.
Truth
Burning and using corrosive chemicals are 2 ways in which the WEEE is effectively stripped of
useful materials. This dangerous way of of recycling does occur in some developing countries but
in the UK the ‘Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations 2013’ ensures that the
treatment of our WEEE is safe no matter where it is undertaken.
Myth
Only parts of the items are recycled before the rest is dumped in landfill.
Truth
There are rules to make sure that WEEE is not thrown away and is recycled.
Special laws state that EEE should be treated using the waste hierarchy.
Myth
There is only a small amount of WEEE in comparison with other types of waste.
Truth
The amount of glass waste produced every year in the UK is 2.25 million tonnes, metals are
6.06 million tonnes and plastic waste is 3.2 million tonnes. The amount of WEEE items that are
discarded each year is a similar amount to these with 2 million tonnes, but the WEEE items are
also made up of other materials as well. The average TV contains 6% metal and 50% glass and
cookers are 89% metal and 6% glass.
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Myth
There is no point in recycling, it doesn’t make a difference.
Truth
The current level of UK recycling (for households this was 44.9% in 2014) is estimated to save
more than 18 million tonnes of CO2 a year. This is the equivalent to taking 5 million or 14.3% of UK
cars off the road.
Myth
Electronic items are made up of different materials and so it costs more to recycle WEEE than
make a product from raw materials.
Truth
As well as having substantial amounts of plastic, glass and metals such as aluminium and steel
that can be recycled cheaply, WEEE items also contain precious metals like gold and rare earth
elements. Rare earth elements are special substances that are used in EEE making materials
stronger, enabling a better range of screen colours and even in making items smaller (speakers
were a lot larger before neodymium magnets). Although they are not actually rare, they are found
in small amounts and mixed up with other elements making the purifying difficult and costly so, not
only can you save money by recycling the plastic, glass and metals but the rare earth elements in
WEEE items are cheaper to purify than from natural sources.
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Sources
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/487916/
UK_Statistics_on_Waste_statistical_notice_15_12_2015_update_f2.pdf
http://www.hse.gov.uk/waste/waste-electrical.htm
http://www.uel.ac.uk/greenthing/recycling/benefits/
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/vehicle-licensing-statistics-2013
http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/rare-earth-elements.htm
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2015/518777/IPOL_
STU(2015)518777_EN.pdf
http://gizmodo.com/
http://www.wrap.org.uk/content/value-re-using-household-waste-electrical-andelectronic-equipment%20
http://www.recyclenow.com
www.sweeepkuusakosk.co.uk
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/3113/pdfs/uksi_20133113_en.pdf
http://www.bsef.com/recycling/
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/3113/pdfs/uksi_20133113_en.pdf
http://www.wrap.org.uk/sites/files/wrap/WEEE%20recovery%20in%20the%20UK.pdf
http://www.step-initiative.org/what-is-ewaste.html
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