A six-month trial is being organised by the Environment and Heritage Service and will look at how popular WEEE collection facilities are with the public.
The initiative will see residents in Belfast asked to deposit waste electronics at the new Alexandra Park Household Recycling Centre in the north of the city. Residents in the rural district of Banbridge will also be involved in the recycling trial and are being asked to take waste electronics to the Dromore community Recycling Centre.
EHS spokeswoman Gwyneth Evans explained: “This initiative is being piloted in Dromore and Belfast in order to gauge the level of demand for this type of recycling service in both a rural and urban area.”
The trial will see electrical items collected from the two sites to be refurbished for re-use by a local charity or shredded for recycling into other products.
Jim Shields, waste manager at Belfast city council, said: “The pilot will identify the quantities of electrical and electronic waste produced in the city and will provide information for the development of an effective recycling scheme, as much of this type of waste can be re-used or recycled.”
The project will help Northern Ireland prepare for the European WEEE Directive, which will be brought into UK law later this year, and will mean new producer responsibility regulations setting collection and recycling targets for electronics (see letsrecycle.com electronics section).
Households in Northern Ireland produce about 30,000 tonnes of electrical waste each year. Keith Patterson, waste management officer at Banbridge district council, said: “A high proportion of these electrical items end up in landfill, which is not only wasteful but potentially dangerous. We can all benefit if these items are re-used or recycled.”
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