Introducing kerbside collections of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) is the “only way” the UK will reach the tougher recycling targets for the waste stream which are set to be introduced from 2016, according to the managing director of WEEE reprocessor Overton Recycling.
Speaking to letsrecycle.com last week (June 24)at an open day held by his West Midlands-based company to mark the Recycle Week campaign's focus on small WEEE (see letsrecycle.com story), Dean Overton said offering kerbside collections was also essential if relatively low levels public awareness of the need to divert WEEE from landfill were to be increased.
And, while he said that the UK was moving in the “right direction” towards meeting higher targets, Mr Overton added that “the progress we have made has got to be continued. We've got to really pull our act together to do that”.
In terms of small WEEE in particular, Mr Overton said: “Local authorities seem to be pretty well signed up to it but the general public, that's where the major amount of work needs to be done.”
Kerbside
Among the discussions on the recast has been the question of whether producers of electronic and electrical equipment should be made responsible for funding all the cost of collecting, treating and recycling WEEE – including from households at the kerbside – or just from CA sites, as is currently the situation.
And, Mr Overton said he believed the former should be the case, stating that: “Its producer responsibility. We need that momentum”. Emphasising the importance of kerbside collection, he added: “I don't mind how we do it but it's the only way to get towards 85%.”
And, he suggested kerbside collections could also trigger far higher levels of public awareness of WEEE recycling, claiming that: “Public awareness will really kick in once we bring in kerbside collection.”
Public awareness will really kick in once we bring in kerbside collection
Dean Overton, managing director, Overton Recycling
With local authorities having no legal obligations to provide free kerbside collections of WEEE, the number of collections being offered nationwide is currently quite low, although there have been moves by reprocessors to provide a free kerbside collection service in partnership with local authorities (see letsrecycle.com story).
Enforcement
In light of recent well-publicised cases relating to illegal exports of WEEE to the developing world (see letsrecycle.com story), Mr Overton also called for “better policing” of the WEEE system by the Environment Agency.
“I am putting all this extra money back into government with regards registration fees and hazardous waste fees but I don't see any extra policing,” he said, adding that, in particular, “I think the reuse sector has got to be very, very carefully policed”.
Much of the media attention on WEEE exports has focused on equipment that is not usable allegedly being classed as fit for reuse and then sent overseas.
Proximity
Overton Recycling currently deals with 40,000 tonnes a year of fridges, TVs and other WEEE at its Dudley headquarters, but has the capacity to deal with double that amount, and Mr Overton said: “Our immediate plans are to have open days so we can pick up WEEE from other councils in the region that are not sending us WEEE.”
He described it as “a scandal” and “disingenuous” that WEEE collected at CA sites near to his facility was being sent for reprocessing at sites as much as 350 miles away, claiming that “we need these councils to subscribe to the proximity principle”.
Looking further into the future, Mr Overton – who has increased the workforce size at his Dudley plant from 40 to 120 over the past year, since adding a specific “WEEE machine” said that his aims were to invest in machinery to increase the purity of materials obtained by his facility's processes.
But, he said that if an 85% collection goal was introduced, he would also “open up another site”.
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