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Sustainable Waste MP Urges Electricals Given New Lease Of Life

31 January 2012

There needs to be greater control of waste electrical and electronic items (WEEE) on household recycling sites, according to Labour MP Alan Whitehead who last week (26 Jan) visited EnvironCom's new WEEE re-use facility in Edmonton, North London

The Southampton MP, who is co-chair of the Associate Parliamentary Sustainable Resource Group, which looks at how the UK meets its environmental commitments, toured the facility and learnt first-hand how doing the right thing with WEEE, which includes re-use where possible, creates more value right across the industry.　

However, many producer compliance schemes don't support this view, which results in mountains of WEEE waste being recycled without understanding its re-use potential.

WRAP recently reported (December 2011) that almost a quarter of WEEE should be reusable, with a potential value of £220m.　 Its Realising the Reuse Value of Household WEEE report found that 23 percent was either fit for resale and reuse or required only minor repairs before it could be resold.

Commenting at the EnvironCom facility, Alan Whitehead said:　"National government, local authorities, manufacturers and retailers all have a responsibility to the public and the environment to ensure they are doing all they can to sustain the life of our unwanted electricals, thus preventing thousands of tonnes of this valuable resource simply going straight to being recycled, ending up in landfill or being illegally exported overseas.　

"It is quite clear that here in the UK we now have the capability to give our unwanted electrical items a new lease of life, which benefits the whole supply chain.　But some parts of the industry are not seeing the true benefit of re-using WEEE waste.　It's obvious that more needs to be done to address this in order that all recyclers are able to operate in the same, responsible way and within the law."

Sean Feeney, CEO of EnvironCom comments: "We are delighted that Alan chose to come and visit our new re-use facility and see for himself that with the right attitude and the right technology, it is possible to do the right thing with WEEE.

"But in order to achieve this there needs to be a level playing field across the industry, with tighter controls on WEEE at household recycling sites in favour of those producer compliance schemes and recyclers that support re-use."

www.environcom.co.uk

Darrel Moore