Recycling |
What is WEEE?
The 2nd of January 2007 saw the introduction of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) regulations in the UK. These regulations are a new piece of producer responsibility legislation which aims to reduce the amount of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) ending up in landfill. Instead the regulations require the collection, treatment, recycling and environmentally sound disposal of WEEE.
Under the hazardous waste regulations from 2005 certain electrical items such as IT equipment have already been re-classified as 'hazardous' and must be disposed of accordingly.
More Information
What does this mean for my business?
If you decide to renew/replace/refurbish your equipment assets then you will need to have a clear and correct exit route for your old equipment. Previously this meant removal by normal everyday waste collection methods, or even in smaller cases by visiting a local landfill/waste collection centre yourself - both methods being at low or no cost.
Now you have an obligation as a business to ensure that your waste electrical and electronic equipment is collected, removed and correctly processed, and of course this usually comes at a premium cost. WEEE recyclers can charge around £800 per tonne to do this.
If your equipment qualifies, dreamscience will pay for your old equipment and it is taken away from your site in days.
The Process
- Take pictures of your surplus equipment
- Make a basic list – Word or text document
- Fill in our online recycling form and attach your list
- We issue a collection code and instructions
- Collection made within days
- We pay you by BACS or post
How long does it take?
Depending on our schedule, we can collect within a few days.
Liability
Dreamscience take full responsibility for your items once off site. We have insurance to cover our operations both onsite and beyond. Once goods are taken away we take full legal responsibility for them.
Decontamination
We need to be made aware of any biological contamination. Please affix decontamination certificates where necessary.
Case Study – Cantab Bio, Cambridge 2009/2010
Although every client is unique, we can summarise our service for a recent client in the Bio Pharmaceutical Industry:
We divided the assets into two groups:
- Sale: Lower value bench-top items
- Commission: Higher value and larger items
Two 20ft shipping containers were delivered to site and these were filled with the Group 1 items. This cleared the bulk of the equipment off-site and dreamscience made an immediate payment to the client.
Group 2 items were then packaged and collected by HGV a few days later. These items were stored at Dreamscience, Stoke-on-Trent, and over a period of 4 months were sold to specialist dealers and end-users, both in the UK and overseas. Dreamscience charged a 30% commission for this service and raised further funds for the client.
The net result was over £50k raised for the client’s surplus equipment.
