High yield for Warwickshire WEEE contract

The amount of waste electronic equipment requiring collection when new producer responsibility rules come into force next year could be much higher than expected.

That was the view of West Midlands waste firm AWM Group, which is just starting out on a six-month contract to collect old televisions and computer monitors from nine local authority sites in Warwickshire.

It could mean that people are more aware of electronics recycling than is assumed.
- Alex Husbands, AWM Group AWM Group, which was awarded the contract by the county council last month, said the early stages of the work had seen a much higher yield than the firm had been expecting.

The contract had suggested about 3,000 units per month would require collection and transport to the Group's WEEEClear cathode ray tube processing plant in Coseley, Dudley. However, the first two weeks of the operation saw 2,600 units picked up.

While there could be some seasonal affect to this, perhaps including the influence of this year's World Cup tournament, the company said it could be symptomatic of a rising awareness of recycling among consumers.

Aware
Alex Husbands, business development manager at AWM, told letsrecycle.com: "This could be down to people taking time off work getting rid of old TVs, it could be because people brought a big screen for the World Cup and are getting rid of them now. Or it could mean that people are more aware of electronics recycling than is assumed.

"Until our collections drop off, maybe in the autumn we will not really know. But we hope the trend continues and we continue to bring in this level of material," he added.

WEEEClear
AWM launched its WEEEClear division in June of this year, opening its recycling plant last month (see letsrecycle.com story). The plant is capable of processing about 300,000 cathode ray tube units every year.

New producer responsibility regulations under the European WEEE Directive are to make manufacturers and retailers responsible for the recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) from July next year.

Mr Husbands said his company would still be involved in taking waste equipment from the Warwickshire area even when producers or their compliance schemes arrange collections under the new legislation.

He said: "When the Directive comes in the producer or compliance scheme that will be responsible for waste in Warwickshire will probably still need a contractor to take the electronic waste. We would look to extend our work in Warwickshire and work with the compliance scheme, in the same way that we have been working with the county."

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