Millions of serviceable computers in the UK end up in landfill sites rather than being recycled, a study has claimed.
The research, sponsored by Fujitsu Siemens Computers (FSC), found that 12.5 million unwanted PCs and laptops have not been reused or recycled by their owners.
The survey found that one in four machines are taken to tips and more than one million computers have been dumped in household rubbish or the countryside.
Only one in 10 Britons claimed their discarded computer was recycled through a manufacturer's recycling facility, and 40 percent said they gave their old computer to a friend or charity.
A massive 6.2 million people said they have unused computers lying around their home or garden, while 5.1 million said they took their old computer to their local dump.
Electrical and electronic waste is the fastest growing waste stream in the UK. Around 1.8 million tonnes are generated every year, with IT equipment accounting for 39 percent of it.
More than six months on from the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive coming into effect, just 26 percent the 94,600 tonnes of IT WEEE waste is recycled.
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FSC said that, even for the one in four people who take their rubbish to their local tip, unless their laptop or PC is assessed on the site, there is no guarantee that it will be passed on for reuse or recycled. It said this was a "huge missed opportunity" as, with the right facilities, these thrown-away units could easily be reused elsewhere.
The company said assessment facilities need to be established at the municipal sites where people drop off their waste.
Talkback
It's a crime really. And to be perfectly honest with you, doesn't supprise me in the slightest. The infrastructure isn't in place. Producer Compliance schemes are supposed to be joined by manufacturers and these used to pay for Approved Authorised Tratment facilities to collect, treat and issue evidence against the quantities of waste WEEE.
Lets get down to the brunt of it here. I'm in the thick of the industry and this week alone, know of one charity IT recycler/ reseller and one major IT recycling firm with 26m GBP investment who are going under and will be closing their doors this year (that's one year after the WEEE directive came into force). Maybe they jumped the gun, thought that customers would come flooding to their doors, or simply grew their expectations faster than the customer base could keep up!.
In my opinion, the cash investments have been made (privately) at the processing end (the coal face to put it bluntly) and there's no infrastructure in place to take the IT/ WEEE equipment from the consumer and get it to the processors (AATFs).
Until the infrastructure/ local authority agreements are in place, the WEEE directive is going to stumble along. May be a good idea to circumvent the idea of the Producer Comliance scheme all together and have recyclers dealing direct with manufacters (my contacts at the Environment Agency will not be pleased with me saying that!). The only downside to this will be a lack of evidence being passed back to the EU- yet more fines for the UK!
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