WEEE research

UK SMEs respond to questions on the waste directive

Watching your waste line

A high proportion of IT users - 29 per cent - either dump or store discarded equipment, according to the Environmental Survey carried out by an independent researcher for MIREC Asset Management.

The latter course of action presumably leads only to more dumping at a later date. MIREC, a pan-European management consultancy, spoke to SMEs across the UK to find out their attitudes to environmental legislation such as the Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment (WEEE) directive.

The lighter IT users, usually smaller firms, are far more likely to admit to taking the dumping or storing option. One respondent said he uses the method of leaving kit in a skip "out-back" in the hope that light-fingered locals will help themselves.

WEEE seem to have forgotten

The SME respondents in the MIREC study were asked how well they knew the WEEE directive compared with other pieces of legislation. Unfortunately, the level of awareness about WEEE seems to have actually fallen, compared with figures gathered by MIREC a year previously.

As the data shows, WEEE is less well known than the Basel II banking agreement and the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (RoHS) directive.

Equipment at your disposal

The government and manufacturers of IT equipment are the ones in the frame when it comes to responsibility for carrying out new disposal laws, the MIREC study shows.

And channel players looking to WEEE for a new source of revenue will doubtless be disappointed to find that just three per cent of the SMEs questioned feel that resellers should lead the way.

Recycling at a cost

Both private and not-for-profit recycling organisations around the UK put lack of capital as the main reason they cannot increase the amount of IT kit they recycle, as shown in research compiled by Realise IT Network.

This organisation, a government- and European Union-funded recycling scheme for central London, set out to assess WEEE-related recycling activity in the UK. Sixty per cent of the organisations questioned stated that storage is their most urgent support need.

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