Consumers should know their options on recycling white goods and gadgets
Posted, January 23, 2012 @ 10:00
Consumers should be aware of their different recycling options and the obligations retailers may have when electrical goods reach end of their useful life, a leading Conservative MEP said today.
Julie Girling, Conservative MEP for the South West, said most householders did not know where to take electrical appliances and electronic gadgets for recycling. Too many just got dumped in the bin.
She was speaking after the European Parliament approved new regulations which will set targets for the recycling of electrical goods and place a duty on larger retailers to take back many goods when they need to be recycled.
Having been involved in negotiations over the legislation, she said she was happy that changes to proposed wording meant member states were being allowed time and flexibility to build effective recycling regimes and that excessive demands had not been placed on smaller retailers.
The new regulations stipulate that stores with floor space of over 400 square metres will be obliged to accept goods returned for recycling.
Mrs Gilring said: "As usual many MEPs were calling for compulsory kerbside collection and very tight rules for member states which would have meant British council taxpayers facing considerable increases. I am pleased that we have managed to avoid this part of the proposal.
"I believe consumers want to be able to recycle and reuse effectively, particularly in this challenging economic climate, but they must have the information and opportunity to do so.
"People have the idea that maybe their old mobile phone's got a residual value, but on something like a toaster or a hairdryer its just all to easy to just chuck it in the bin. Every electrical product that has been sold in the UK has been sold now for the last seven years with special instructions on what you do with it: i.e. do not put it in your normal waste stream. However people can ignore it.
"They cannot ignore it with a washing machine because the bin wagon is not going to take that away, but if it goes in a bag with general household waste and gets sent to landfill or to incineration that is a real waste. We want to make sure that we capture that product. So one of the things in this regulation is that bigger stores will be required by regulation to have a 'take back', so if you go to buy a new toaster you take your old one with you in full and certain knowledge that that shop has to take it back.
Mrs Girling said many countries had failed to put effective recycling procedures in place, with historic figures showing more than two-thirds of waste electronics being put into landfill, incinerated or illegally exported.
"The regulations are aimed at making real inroads into recycling rates, not least because we need resource efficiency. The precious metals and rare earths used in a lot of the very small mobile phones and digital cameras are a very finite resource and they're going to run out; so we're going to need to reuse those which are already in products.
"We also need to minimise the environmental degradation that comes from mining these things. There is a real incentive for the public to get behind recycling waste electronics, especially when otherwise they're just burned to get those elements out. Particularly in the developing world this is causing all kinds of environmental hazards."
"I don't think many people really know at present what to do with their waste electronics. The only way to find out in the UK at the moment is to phone your local council which is your local waste-disposal authority and find out what they suggest. Mostly they will suggest that you take you item to a waste site where they'll have a special bin to put it in. Very few authorities do kerbside collections but a few charities do, but the local authority website or information desk should be your first stop."