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29 Sep 2008
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Channel firms and industry bodies have urged the government and end users to help put a stop to rogue traders illegally exporting e-waste to foreign countries.
Charity Computer Aid International is seeking to raise awareness of more than 500,000 second-hand PCs that arrive in Lagos in Nigeria every month. The machines are exported from across the western world on the basis of being re-usable, despite only one in four being so.
After disassembly, e-waste is left in landfills or burned hazardously.
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Computer Aid chief executive Louise Richards said: “Our government must find out who is taking part in these practices and stop them. We are calling for more policing of the waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) directive.”
Richards commended vendors such as Dell, which runs a free take-back service on all its kit.
“One of the underlying premises of the directive is that the producer pays. Manufacturers should take more responsibility,” she said.
The directive came into force last January and Chris Spooner, general manager of WEEE specialist recycling service Midex, said the actions of fraudulent traders could hit legitimate firms in the pocket.
“People taking part in illegal practices should be brought to justice,” he said. “It is a growing problem; the docks should be policed.”
Bill Osborne, service solutions consultant for data destruction specialist Ultratec, said users also have to shoulder the responsibility.
“This is quite a worrying trend,” Osborne told CRN. “Unscrupulous traders are being allowed to do business by end users who need to be more educated.”
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WEEE Directive - Asset management is key to compliance
The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive may be touted as a cost for suppliers, but unless organisations get their asset registers in order, it will also create a significant cost for UK business.
Such policies as WEEE assume a level of asset management far beyond that achieved by the majority of UK business. Unless supplying a like for like replacement, suppliers will only remove and dispose of equipment they have delivered initially. How many UK businesses can accurately identify the location of their WEEE equipment within the organisation and confirm when it was purchased and from whom? Without such information, just which company do they expect to handle the free disposal?
Organisations need to implement sound asset disposal procedures. Linking the asset register to a document management system will ensure a scanned WEEE certificate is linked to a disposed asset, providing the required audit trail. Each asset can be recorded alongside the supplier?s name and email address, enabling swift supplier contact when disposal is due.
UK business is already complaining about excessive red tape, perhaps why the WEEE Directive introduction in July 2007 was so downplayed. But a belief that the onus of WEEE is firmly on equipment suppliers could be an expensive mistake.
Karen Conneely
Group Commercial Manager
Real Asset Management
Posted by Karen Conneely | 29 Sep 2008
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