The company announced a new UK recycling programme today, aiming to offer consumers an option for their WEEE as well as educating them as to the reasons for the Directive.

Customers will be able to recycle any computer systems, monitors and printers when purchasing new equipment from Dell. The company is also offering to take back old Dell equipment for those people not wishing to purchase anything new, both services will provide free collections from the home.

Alongside the take back scheme Dell are planning to offer a donation service in association with the National Cristina Foundation. The service should be available by the end of the year. Lena Pripp-Kovac, spokeswoman for Dell, explained: "Customers will be able to visit our website, click on the donate link and they will be transferred to the National Cristina Foundation's UK partner ReCOM who will arrange the donation. All they have to do is fill in the details of whatever it is they are offering."

The company have said they are looking at multiple options for the collection of consumer WEEE as a way of finding out what works best. Ms Pripp-Kovac said: "We are giving people more than one option for the recycling of their end of life goods as a way of seeing what takes off. It is early days yet so we are trying to find out what consumers react to."

Dell is also looking to experiment with other awareness drives alongside its take back programmes. In America they have run weekend return; at these events people can bring their old equipment to Dell free of charge. Dell has said that this is not a long term strategy but it increases awareness in the short term and helps educate the consumer.

Public awareness

Dell has said that for the moment these initiatives about getting the public to acknowledge what can and should be done with end of life WEEE, Ms Pripp-Kovac said: "We want to increase the public's interest level, make them aware of what is on offer."

For businesses the company is offering Dell Asset Recovery Services (ARS) which allows business customers to recycle or re-sell redundant computer equipment. The company expects more reusable equipment to be handed in through the business scheme, Ms Pripp-Kovac explained. "Companies often upgrade about every three years, so we expect a lot of the business WEEE to be re-useable. The consumer WEEE is likely to be a lot older."

With the WEEE regulations set to come into force in around a year's time Dell has moved now to ensure that when the changes have to be implemented consumers and businesses are ready.

Dell produced a survey of 400 businesses and 400 consumers and they discovered that 72% of consumers had no idea what the WEEE Directive was, but 76% of them were interested in finding out where to take end of life WEEE.

The research also discovered that 70% of people kept hold of their old computers, either because they were worried about the data stored or simply because they did not know what to do with it. Ms Pripp-Kovac said: "People have said that they often just leave the old computers in a garage or loft, they don't know where to take it."