Enforcement “critical” to WEEE regulations

Axion Recycling ltd, which is opening a 3 million WEEE plastic recycling plant in Salford next month (see letsrecycle.com story), warned that unless tight enforcement was provided, companies who had invested in waste electronic recycling could suffer.

Regulations governing waste electronics will come into force this summer

The firm, which intends to process 14,000 tonnes of plastic a year, added that “hard” evidence of WEEE treatment, removal and actual tonnages recycled should be insisted upon to reach the recycling levels set down by the WEEE directive.

Speaking in response to regulation proposals laid before MPs last month, (see letsrecycle.com story)
, Axion's technical director Keith Freegard, said: “Enforcement is critical to the regulations success. The collection and primary treatment of the waste has to be undertaken by companies who are operating to professional, ethical standards.”

He added: “I hope that the approved authorised treatment facilities will be setting a very high standard to ensure the safe removal of hazardous materials and produce good quality, separate waste streams for recycling by downstream reprocessors.”

Impact

Effective from July 1, the WEEE directive is expected to have a significant impact on the UK electrical and electronics industry as producers and importers face strict new rules for collection, recycling and recovery of waste electrical and electronic equipment. The regulations aim to promote recycling, minimise waste and reduce disposal to landfill.

Axion believes that in order to meet these objectives, the government should also make sure the WEEE regulations encourage the recycling of all components of waste electronics.

Mr Freegard said: “My concern is the if waste electrical items are simply shredded en masse and without prior sorting in large-scale fragmentiser plants, then the quality of the output waste streams will be lost.”

He continued: “These regulations offer the opportunity for WEEE recycling to be carried out responsibly; an approach that must be taken so that it yields well-defined waste plastic streams that can be processed at plants like ours.”

China

Axion's technical director explained that shipping old WEEE abroad for re-use to countries like China was also not a “viable” recycling route, as he claimed the actual percentage of waste electronics which got re-used was “very difficult to trace.”