New E-Waste Legislation in the UK

New legislation in the UK is now requiring manufactures and retailers of electronic goods to invest in e-waste programs. Under the new legislation, manufacturers have to fund recycling schemes while retailers must offer free take-back services or help fund the expansion of a network of a Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) collection points.

This is all great news, but some valid concerns have been brought up about the efficiency of the recycling schemes. Under the new rule, manufacturers report to the Environmental Agency how much IT they sold to consumers and they in turn tell each company what percentage of recycling they are responsible for. Essentially lumping all e-waste into one collective pool and then dishing out a proportionate amount of responsibility to each company to deal with.

Critics of the new system point toward Japan as a better alternative.

The BBC reports:

“What they have done in Japan is introduce a more individual producers’ responsibility approach,” she said.

“Instead of HP being responsible for any old IT and recycling it, we are only responsible for HP equipment.”

This had a number of additional environmental benefits, she added.

“Most of the environmental impact in complex manufactured goods is decided at the design stage.

“If we design our products to be more recyclable at the end-of-life stage, we not only reap the economic benefits but also the design decisions that we have made.

“Why should we make [components] easier to remove when we are getting everybody else’s laptop back.

BBC: New e-waste recycling laws begin

[via archinect]