Waste from electrical and electronic equipment

Information

What is waste from electric and electronic equipment?

Many everyday consumer items contain electrical parts. Any appliance that runs on electricity has the potential to cause damage to the environment if it is not disposed of in a responsible way. Dealing with the waste this sector produces is becoming increasingly difficult because the lifespan of electronic goods is becoming shorter and the amount of broken or obsolete equipment that is being thrown away is increasing. Common items of electrical and electronic waste are:

• Large household appliances (refrigerators/freezers, washing machines, dishwashers)
• Small household appliances (toasters, coffee makers, irons, hairdryers)
• Information technology (IT) and telecommunications equipment (personal computers, telephones, mobile phones, laptops, printers, scanners, photocopiers)
• Consumer equipment (televisions, stereo equipment, electric toothbrushes, transistor radios)
• Lighting equipment (fluorescent lamps)
• Electrical and electronic tools (handheld drills, saws, screwdrivers)
• Toys (Playstation, etc.,)
• Medical equipment systems (with the exception of all implanted and infected products)
• Monitoring and control instruments
• Automatic dispensers.

What are the main environmental concerns?

Resource depletion

If electrical and electronic products are disposed of in landfill sites, millions of tonnes of materials that could be recovered and reused for new products are being lost. Recovery of these materials would reduce the need to extract more raw materials for the manufacture of new products. Another benefit of recycling is the saving of energy achieved if raw materials could be recycled instead of mined. For example, aluminium mining uses 20 times the amount of energy it takes to recycle the same amount.

Examples of components arising from waste from electric and electronic equipment

• Printed circuit boards
• Cathode ray tubes
• Wires and cables
• Mercury switches
• Batteries
• Light generators (e.g., lamps)
• Capacitors and resistors
• Sensors and connectors

Dangerous substances arising from waste from electric and electronic equipment

Some electronic equipment and/or its components contain substances that are considered dangerous to the environment and human health if they are disposed of carelessly. Although these dangerous substances are usually only contained in small amounts, they have great potential for causing serious environmental damage. In July 2006, the EU Directive on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic Equipment singled out the following substances and instructed that they be substituted:

• Mercury
• Cadmium
• Lead
• Hexavalent Chromium
• Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE)
• Polybrominated biphenyls (PBB)

Other harmful substances that can be contained in electrical and electronic waste are:

• Arsenic
• Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)
• Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs)
• Nickel
• Asbestos

Recyclable materials arising from waste from electric and electronic equipment

• Ferrous metal
• Non-ferrous metal
• Glass
• Plastics

After ferrous metals, plastics are the second largest component arising from waste from electric and electronic equipment. There is an added danger that some of this plastic is flame retarded, using processes which can be damaging to the environment if not disposed of properly.

What happens to waste from electric and electronic equipment produced in Ireland?

Landfill sites

Space at landfill sites is becoming scarce. It is not appropriate to dispose of waste from electric and electronic equipment in landfill sites because of the harmful substances that waste from electric and electronic equipment is known to contain.

Incinerators

The Environmental Protection Agency has licensed 2 incinerators, but neither have commenced operations. There are advantages and disadvantages to the treatment of waste from electric and electronic equipment by incineration. On the plus side, some of the environmentally hazardous organic substances in waste from electric and electronic equipment are converted to less environmentally hazardous compounds in the incineration process. Also, if items of waste from electric and electronic equipment contain a high percentage of plastic, they are very suitable for the incineration process. However, much of this waste also contains heavy metals and halogenated substances, which, if not managed properly, result in concentration of heavy metals in the slag and potential emission of mercury, dioxins and furans. These consequences would have adverse effects on the environment.

Recycling of waste from electric and electronic equipment

Two sectors of the recycling industry in Ireland currently deal with the majority of waste electronic and electrical equipment - large shredder operators and smaller specialist recyclers. They are backed up by other companies, which provide services such as plastics recycling and refining precious metals. In addition, there may be small repair and refurbishment initiatives.

Recycling specialists

There are two main types of specialist recycler in Ireland: those that collect items for export to countries with more advanced recycling systems and those that extract components and materials for recycling. Most Irish companies fall into the collection and exportation category and are involved in handling IT equipment. Companies handling IT equipment will often assess a machine for potential refurbishment and resale. They will clean up and repair the old machine and then sell it on. Current information indicates that most of these refurbished machines are exported to Eastern Europe or Asia. If a machine cannot be resold, it is stripped of its components, which are resold or exported for recycling.

Most of the equipment processed by specialist recyclers in this country comes from the commercial sector. These are usually producers who operate take-back schemes or want to dispose of surplus stock or large companies who want to dispose of their waste from electric and electronic equipment in a responsible way, for example banks or offices replacing their computer systems or other office equipment such as photocopiers or faxes. Equipment from the domestic market does not always constitute a steady supply for recyclers.

Shredders and scrap metal specialists

Shredders process a mixed range of equipment to recover different materials, primarily metals. Large hammermills, also known as fragmentisers, shred a mixed stream of metal-rich materials, including end-of-life vehicles, household appliances and other light iron. They produce a clean shredded metal product and a mixed non-ferrous product. They also produce a waste stream, made up of dirt, glass, concrete, rubber and plastics, which is known as "fluff".

Rules

Legislation

Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive 2002/96/EC

The EU Directive on waste from electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) entered into force on 13th February 2003. Based on the premise of producer responsibility and that improved product design can better facilitate recycling and disposal of products at end-of-life, the key aims of the WEEE Directive are to:

• Reduce WEEE disposal to landfill.
• Provide for free take-back of end-of-life equipment, in particular, provide for the establishment of collection facilities and separate collection systems for WEEE from private households. This involves the setting up of collection systems for last holders of waste from electric and electronic equipment to deposit/discard this waste free of charge and free take-back of waste from electric and electronic equipment from private households when buying a new product.
• Provide for the establishment and financing by producers of systems for the recovery and treatment of WEEE, including provisions for placing financial guarantees on new products placed on the market. This will create a financial incentive to improve product design. The legislation requires producers to pay the costs of recycling products from domestic households and in many cases from businesses.
• Achieve specified targets for recovery, reuse and recycling of different classes of WEEE. This includes a collection target of 4 kg per person a year for domestic appliances.
• Improve product design with a view to both preventing WEEE and to increasing its recoverability, reusability and/or recyclability. This involves the substitution of hazardous substances, the re-use of components and materials and incentives from national governments to encourage producers to design equipment that can be easily recycled or refurbished.

Transposition into Irish Legislation

Up until the transposition of the WEEE Directive no legislation existed in Ireland to deal specifically with waste from electrical and electronic equipment. However, the Waste Management Acts, 1996-2003 gave the necessary powers to local authorities to regulate specific waste streams, like waste from electric and electronic equipment and allowed for the provision of producer responsibility obligations where they were considered necessary. The legislation transposing the WEEE and RoHS Directives consists of three sets of regulations:

• S.I. 290 of 2005 - amending the Waste Management Acts 1996 to 2003 in accordance with the provisions of section 62 of the Waste Management Act 1996 in order to provide the enabling provisions under which the detailed regulations for the two Directives will operate
• S.I. 340 of 2005 - implementation arrangements for the WEEE Directive
• S.I. 341 of 2005 - implementation arrangements for the RoHS Directive.

You can read more about the implementation of the WEEE directive in 'Recycling Waste from Electrical and Electronic equipment'. Further information about these regulations can be obtained from the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.

Local government management of waste from electric and electronic equipment

Local authorities have develop initiatives for improving their management of waste from electric and electronic equipment as part of their general waste management plans. These plans revolve around improved collection facilities at civic amenity sites, increasing the amount of waste from electric and electronic equipment that is recycled and cutting down on the amount of waste from electric and electronic equipment sent to landfill sites. For details of initiatives in your own area, you should contact your local authority.

Rates

As noted above, the WEEE Directive provides for free take-back of end-of-life equipment.

Householders may also deposit WEEE free at civic amenity facilities. 

How to apply

For details of how to dispose of electrical and electronic waste in the proper way, contact your local authority. It will be able to advise you on how to deal with this kind of waste.

View a list of companies in Ireland providing collection and recycling services for waste electrical and electronic equipment. (This national list is provided and maintained by Kilkenny County Council).

Where to apply