Remade Kent & Medway is joining with the Royal British Legion Industries (RBLI) and IT specialists ADM Computing to launch a six-month pilot of a centralised local facility to recycle business computer waste.
WEEE Directive
The aim of the project is to help businesses prepare for the requirements of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive, which becomes UK law in 2004 and will set recycling and recovery targets for electrical equipment.
The project is expected to require around 100,000 in capital costs – to cover a 75,000 shredder, a project manager and training – plus additional running costs. Initially, Remade will cover the funding, but it hopes to win a landfill tax grant from a local operator. Eventually, the scheme should fund itself commercially.
Ex-servicemen
Remade is sponsored by Kent County Council, Business Link Kent, Brett Environment Trust, Kent Sustainability Partnership and Medway Council. The RBLI came on board because it had large industrial premises in Aylesford and was on the lookout for new projects to provide employment for partly disabled ex-servicemen.
Under the scheme, RBLI will collect used computers from retailers or businesses and take them to the depot. Staff trained by ADM will then assess the PCs and decide whether they can be sold or given away after refurbishment, or stripped to their component parts and sold for recovery. Remade plans to begin training staff in the first week of January 2003 using computers collected from the University of Kent.
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