Study suggests WEEE could be collected from kerbsides

Funded by the Onyx Environmental Trust with support from Hampshire county council, the Hampshire Natural Resources Trust has been running a scheme investigating the options for councils in dealing with waste electronics.

”There is a lot of good quality WEEE being discarded, the question is how we can make the most of it “
– Roger Freeman, Hampshire Natural Resources Trust
The trial looked at different options for collection, dismantling, treatment and recovery of “small” household electronic waste, items such as toasters and hair dryers.

And Roger Freeman, project manager explained at an event in Winchester this week that he felt early collection of uncontaminated WEEE was crucial to achieving good recycling rates.

Revealing initial findings of the project, Mr Freeman said that kerbside collections, ensuring that the items were separated, could be paid for by the resale of reusable items. Such a scheme could require householders to hold on to their electronic waste for several weeks while waiting for the collection, rather than putting it in the bin.

Mr Freeman added: “It is not too much to ask, especially if residents are interested in being eco friendly. There is a lot of good quality WEEE being discarded, the question is how we can make the most of it. We estimate that providing collections four times a year for small WEEE is a possibility.

“And the sale of reusable items could then cover the cost of the collection, we believe that 2 tonnes a collection would allow a scheme to break even,” he said.

Cost


As part of the trial, the HNRT also worked out the cost per tonne for providing the collections. The council estimated how many items of WEEE were likely to become available from each of the 620,000 households in Hampshire including Portsmouth and Southampton.

In order estimate the feedstock per household, the trial used the demographic category of a household, how many electrical items are expected to be owned by the house, the expected weight of each item and the expected replacement time for each item.

” The key to good quality recovered base materials that could substitute for virgin raw material is early collection of uncontaminated end of life products “
– HNRT WEEE project
Costs of collection per tonne differed varied across the various different areas of the county.

In Southampton where four urban collections would be needed each year, the cost per tonne was estimated at 48. In contrast the district of Rushmoor, an area with a higher social demographic, four urban and two rural collections a year would be required with costs escalating to 99 per tonne.

CA sites


The trial also looked at the collection of electronic waste at household waste recycling centres. And as with households, it found that to get the best possible yield of recyclables, separate collection from the start was crucial.

The research work on the centre moved outside of Hampshire, involving the London borough of Lewisham in order to determine different collection possibilities.

Various different collection formats for electronic waste were tested, including a mixed skip at a site, collection banks and collection sheds with electronic waste separated out.

And the trial concluded that “the key to good quality recovered base materials that could substitute for virgin raw material is early collection of uncontaminated end of life products.”

Mr Freeman said that when electronics were collected together in one skip it left the materials open for contamination.

He said: “A deep fat frier was placed in the skip and vegetable oil was spilled onto the other collected items. Councils need a dedicated WEEE store with sufficient room to protect the equipment as a soft collection eliminates collection damage.”