WEEE Compliance

We all know how fast computers and other IT technology become out of date. The need to recycle and get rid of the out of date equipment is only going to become greater.

The figure of out of date computer equipment being stored by households and companies is a massive 75%. There is so much equipment being stored that could be used for recycling, not to mention the toxic gases and parts that are in the computer. There are a few good companies who deal with disposing of these products in a safe and environmental way.

Many people have asked what I should do with my old computer. The problem is that people just do not know what to do, they do not know how to recycle or dispose of the out of date computer. The solution seems to be to store them somewhere. There is a large amount of components that can be reused.

Another big way to recycle is paper recycling. It is properly the area of recycling with the most understanding and popularity. Many people may not know that paper recycling can be broken down into 3 further groups:

Mill broke

Pre consumer

Post consumer

These 3 groups are simply explained:

Mill broke – scrap paper from the manufacturing process.

Pre consumer – this is paper that has been discarded before it has got to the consumer.

Post consumer – this is paper that people have discarded after they have used it.

A high percentage of paper can be recycled. In today’s age recycling plants have the ability to recycle the different types of paper. There are many different types of paper in use today to name a few newspapers, magazines, printing paper, birthday cards etc, books and cardboard boxes.

Something that has become more prominent over the last few years is battery recycling. Battery plants do require that the batteries. They look to recycle the parts people would usually think are just waste.

Due to the vast number of different types of batteries namely size and power. The batteries have to be sorted before they are recycled. Many supermarkets such as Tesco or Asda now have battery recycling bins where customers can just drop off their used batteries to be collected at a later date.

The whole point of recycling batteries is that the parts can then be used again by manufacturing companies. This goes a long way to reduce the impact batteries have on the environment.