Important Customer Information - WEEE Regulations
With effect from July 2007, the UK's Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations require that all producers of electrical equipment are now obliged to pay for recycling of household electrical goods, where previously this bill was met by councils or items were not recycled at all. These regulations also require that all retailers both actively assist in delivering a UK wide WEEE collection infrastructure and encourage the participation of consumers in recycling electronic equipment.
Eldon Electricals is a member of the Distributor Take Back Scheme and therefore exempt from the requirement to ensure that WEEE from private households can be returned to us free of charge.
The WEEE Regulations do not give an entitlement to free home collection.
We can still collect your old appliances and recycle them for you but this will carry our usual charge.
So that you can get your waste electrical goods recycled, we have contributed towards a national fund to assist local councils to further develop their existing waste electronics collection facilities, which will in turn allow producers of this equipment to meet their obligations.
Not all council sites are suitable to collect all types of waste electrical goods but to find out your nearest participating site (including other collection facilities that may not be operated by the council) and for advice on all aspects of recycling at home, please visit www.recycle-more.co.uk. Don’t forget to have your postcode ready to use in the ‘recycling facilities’ locator.
Electronic waste is one of the fastest growing waste streams and much of it can be recycled and resources recovered to make new consumer goods. We dispose of over 1.2 million tonnes of electrical and electronic waste every year in the UK from the public alone. Each and every year, this is the equivalent of:
150,000 double decker busses
OR
164 Eiffel Towers
OR
444,444 Range Rovers
Much of the UK’s electronic waste ends up in landfill sites, where toxins put communities at risk. Failure to segregate any type of recyclable material in the home will usually result in items being disposed of in a landfill site (buried in the ground in the UK) or being incinerated.
It has been estimated that landfill space in the UK will run out within the next 10 years. Recycling WEEE will have significant effects on the environment.
Where WEEE is not recycled, this waste can have negative impacts on soil, air and water quality which can lead to environmental damage, and which can also lead to negative impacts on human health and animal heath.
THE CROSSED OUT WHEELED BIN SYMBOL
Since August 2005 producers have been required by UK law to ensure that the crossed out wheeled bin symbol shown above is printed on all electrical products.
This symbol aims to encourage consumers to separate out their Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment and to discard it separately from other household waste.
The symbol is not intended to indicate that WEEE is banned from being disposed of as general waste.
