WEEE way to get rid of waste

Selby District Council is cleaning up its IT act by disposing of old electrical equipment.

It is working with a north-east company to recycle, reduce and reuse its electronic waste by removing old hardware from the council's buildings, and implementing a Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) policy.

Under new Government guidelines, all organisations will have to put a WEEE policy in place for the proper disposal of old electrical equipment before January 1, 2007.

Coun Chris Metcalfe, chairman of the council's environment board, said: "Our main priority with securing this contract was to ensure that any data stored on our electrical equipment - for example, computer hard drives - could not be accessed by anyone else at any point in the future.

"We are continually developing our waste and recycling services, so we also required confirmation that the waste will be recycled in a responsible manner, and none of it would end up in landfill.

"The new WEEE legislation regarding the proper disposal of old electrical equipment has not yet been implemented, so we are ahead of the game in terms of securing this disposal contract."

Weeeco, based in Gateshead, has been working with the council.

Its managing director, Beverly Ann Eckerman, said: "Selby District Council is our first local authority contract, and coupled with the recent NHS contracts secured, Weeeco is now cementing itself in the public sector market.

"It's encouraging that they are willing to set an example to the rest of the public sector by adopting the service prior to it becoming UK legislation."

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