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WEEE Recycling a Multi-Billion Pound Opportunity
December 20, 2011According to a new study from WRAP precious metals found on incorrectly disposed eWaste could top £7bn over next decade. The study analysed the potential reuse value of unwanted WEEE disposed of at Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs) and via local authority bulky waste collections.
Every year thousands of tonnes of electrical and electronic equipments are thrown out in the UK by household and businesses. WRAP’s study revealed that a quarter of all that WEEE could be reused, generating more than £220m in the process.
“We found that 23 per cent of all the WEEE collected at recycling centres could have been either sold on straight away, or resold after repair and refurbishment,” explained WRAP’s Lucy Keal, project manager for products and materials.
Today in the UK the two most common forms of disposing unwanted or broken household EEEs are by taken it to Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs) or by booking local authority bulky waste collections. Businesses tend to hire waste management companies to take care of their WEEE.
When asked about alternatives for discarding WEEE, 83% said they are not aware of any other disposal route either than HWRC. While of those arranging a bulky waste collection, 57% said they could take their item to an HWRC.
Repairing and refurbishing EEEs for reuse is surely a viable alternative that could generate millions of pounds not to mention the obvious environmental benefits aggregated to it. But unfortunately consumerism in today’s society is extremely high and instead of repairing people prefers to buy a new one. Not to mention the vast majority that change phone every year or simply can’t resist buying the latest high def TV.
That is why WEEE recycling must be taken seriously by authorities. According to Dr Liz Goodwin, chief executive of WRAP, every year in the UK are purchased 22.5 million mobile phones collectively contain 0.9 tonnes gold, 9.4 tonnes of silver and 332 tonnes of copper.
At current market rates that would be £5bn worth of gold, approximately £1bn worth of silver and £1,5 million worth of copper. If we add the 17 tonnes of indium and 63 tonnes of palladium each worth approximately £1bn we would have a total of £8bn.
“Strategic materials like these are currently only recovered sporadically,” said Goodwin. “However, the increasing market value of recovered materials such as indium and palladium makes their recovery more economically viable, albeit not without risk.”
Reuse, refurbishment and recovering of precious materials found on WEEEs are clearly the way forward to increase eWaste recycling levels and significantly reduce environmental impacts.
WRAP’s has now confirmed that has started research to optimise processes of extracting critical raw materials from WEEE while improving their reuse potential.
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