National Recycle Week Works.

By Nick Mann

Business minister Mark Prisk has today (September 8) hailed figures showing that the household WEEE collection rate reached 44.3% in the second quarter of 2010, with the tonnage of small waste electricals collected hitting a record high.

Data published by the Environment Agency last week revealed that, between April and June 2010, 268,642.274 tonnes of household electrical equipment was placed on the market and 119,013.44 tonnes of household waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) was collected.

It is particularly encouraging to see that this increase is largely attributed to higher volumes of small electricals being sent for recycling by householders


Mark Prisk, business minister The 44.3% figure represents an increase from the 33.6% household WEEE collection rate recorded for 2009 as a whole (see letsrecycle.com story) and sees the amount of WEEE collected increasing despite a continuing fall in the amount of new electrical equipment being put on the market.

The Q2 period included the annual ‘Recycle Week' publicity campaign taking a focus on small WEEE in June 2010 (see letsrecycle.com story), and the figures show that, during the three months, 6,301.078 tonnes of category 2 WEEE - ‘small household appliances' - was collected. This was compared to the previous quarterly high for the waste stream, which was 5,710.451 tonnes during the same period in 2009.

Small WEEE has been regularly been identified as a priority by sector figures if the UK is to meet increase its WEEE recycling rate, especially in light of potentially tougher EU targets (see letsrecycle.com story).

The latest figures were welcomed by the business minister, Mark Prisk, who told letsrecycle.com: "I am pleased to see that the Q2 data shows record levels of waste electricals being separately collected. It is particularly encouraging to see that this increase is largely attributed to higher volumes of small electricals being sent for recycling by householders.

"But there is no room for complacency. I would ask all producer compliance schemes to continue working with local authorities and their waste management partners to encourage householders to send their wanted electricals for recycling or re-use," he added.

Recycle Week
Recycle Week saw local authorities and waste management companies up and down the country holding events which aimed to divert more small waste electricals from landfill.

Related links
•Department for business, innovation and skills
•Environment Agency
The figures also come after a concerted period of awareness work involving the department for business, innovation and skills and the Waste & Resources Action Programme (see letsrecycle.com story) aimed at boosting small WEEE collection rates, which have proved relatively low compared to other categories of WEEE.

However, the Q2 figures show that, while the amount of small WEEE collected increased to 20.83% from 18.93% in the same period in 2009, it is still well behind the overall household WEEE collection rate.