ELECTRICAL & ELECTRONICS
THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
WEEE
WASTE ELECTRONICS – COSTLY, COMPLEX
AND FAR FROM COMFORTABLE
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment
(WEEE) is the elephant in the room. A quick
scan of recent news articles pulls up a
plethora of missed targets, new legislation,
illegal exportation and high technology. A
heady mix of information, indeed, and truly
a minefield. On top of this, DEFRA said in the
recent UK Resources and Waste Strategy that
it plans to review UK WEEE regulations again
in early 2020.
Those involved in the industry need to be
fully aware of the timescales for delivery,
the scale of change and impacts of EU Exit
discussions on parliamentary process and
economic pressures on the economy as a
whole.
But ask any manufacturer of electronics in the
UK today what they are looking for in terms
of compliance with management of their
WEEE, and they will probably simply say ‘a
level playing field.’
There are those who are truly taking a stand
– multinational consumer facing brands with
a lot to lose in reputation terms – and those
who are simply paying lip service to the WEEE
Directive and environmental legislation.
With more than 300 different types of plastic
used in manufacturing, it’s complex, it’s costly
and it’s a far from comfortable issue.
Speaking at the RINA Electrical and Electronic
Equipment and the Environment conference
in London this week, Dr Kevin Bradley,
Secretary General of BSEF, The International
Bromine Council, says what’s needed is
pragmatic solutions and a better approach to
sorting out the waste at source.
“No one is collecting enough,” he states
bluntly, adding: “and an awful lot of WEEE
is still stuck in people’s drawers – they don’t
know what to do with it. In terms of recyclers,
there isn’t a single company that processes
plastic waste – especially that containing
brominated fire retardants (BFRs) – from
start to finish. There are a lot of grey areas,
and material is exported, with companies
washing their hands of the responsibilities.”
He sees a number of issues. First and
foremost, scavenging of WEEE for the
best (read: most profitable) parts means a
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reduction in the overall availability of raw
material.
Meanwhile, the illegal export of whole WEEE
articles and materials – such as recycled plastic
shred - out of the EU is causing all sorts of
industry headaches and leads us back to the
‘level playing field’ argument.
Bradley describes a situation where removing
the unwanted parts of the WEEE – such as
flame retardants - is costly, time-consuming
and expensive. He paints a picture whereby a
UK recycler has 10,000 tonnes of plastic shred
that potentially contains fire retardants. It could
be sent to a specialist processor in the EU to
remove the offending chemicals – and under
the WEEE Directive all BFR-containing plastics
must be separated from other plastics – but it
can take six months to get an export licence.
“Getting such a licence is expensive,
complicated and you might need help to
do the paperwork. Meanwhile, you’ve got
10,000 tonnes of plastic shred clogging up
your warehouse – so what do you do?” asked
Bradley.
It’s clear that current complexity and cost
means recyclers are looking for alternative
solutions. But the alternative is often shipping
rough shredded plastic to Asia, where it is
processed and sent back to Europe. And that’s
how flame retardants have been found in
food packaging on European supermarket
shelves.
Bradley says part of the problem here is that
while sorting is a requirement, the directive
doesn’t proscribe what must be done. “If we
can get it right at the first stage,” he says, “then
that’s half the battle. Recyclers are being
asked to do things manufacturers are not.
Under the current system, there’s no
coherence between the WEEE directive
and waste shipment regulation – so there
are differences in implementation and
interpretation within Europe, and globally.
The burden of WEEE is also on producers,
with industry circles keen to learn more about
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR).