Since the 2013 Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations came into force there has been a reporting gap, between the weight of Electronic and Electrical Equipment (EEE) sales and WEEE collection and treatment. The 2019 collection target for the UK looks challenging, with greater reliance on substantiated estimates to account for legitimate recycling outside of the mainstream system.
There have been a number of studies into the unreported reuse, collection, storage, treatment and disposal of WEEE (a key one was previously delivered by the Pentland Centre team), at a relatively high level and focused on specific streams of collection and treatment. This is partly because, given their nature, unreported waste streams are challenging to characterize, engage with and quantify.
The UK WEEE fund has recently awarded in the region of £200,000 to a collaborative project led by Anthesis Group (Environmental Consultancy) and including the Pentland Centre and two of the largest producer led organisations in the UK – REPIC Ltd and Valpak. The project will undertake an ‘Independent study on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) flows in the UK’.
The Pentland Centre team is made up of Dr Alison Stowell, Dr Dmitry Yumashev, Oliver Schaer and Camila De Jesus Silva who are specifically focusing on the second hand flows of the equipment.