Member Article

An insight into the opportunities WEEE Recycling presents for UK businesses

Enviro Waste is a London-based environmentally friendly waste clearance company. Managing Director James Rubin discusses the advantages of adopting a business model focused on reducing e-waste.

Many businesses see recycling as something of a burden – a chore that they must carry out to uphold a sustainable image and conform to new environmentally-friendly legislation. Indeed, some are even withdrawing from the recycling market because it’s not ‘commercially attractive’ enough.

However, I still think that many UK businesses are missing ‘easy wins’ when recycling – especially recycling WEEE items.

A recent report revealed that outdated recycling systems are losing the UK economy £1.7bn in wasted plastics, electronics and food. What’s disappointing to see however is the amount that could easily be recycled and re-introduced into the economy. Take electronics for example; between now and 2020, the UK will dispose of around 12m tonnes of electronic equipment – a quarter of which could easily be fixed up and re-sold, if businesses were presented with the right recycling opportunities.

Electronic waste contains many tonnes of precious metals. Palladium, gold, iridium, neodymium platinum, gallium and indium are all used in everyday electronic items such as laptops, smartphones and many of the other everyday gadgets we rely on. It’s estimated that around three quarters of the gold currently used in the production of consumer goods is lost each year due to inappropriate recycling measures for electronic equipment. If the linear economy which uses a ‘take, make and dispose’ mentality continues the way it is, we would dispose of 12m tonnes of electronic waste over the next 6 years equating to up to £1bn worth of palladium alone – all because businesses haven’t implemented WEEE recycling procedures.

Electronic waste needs to be recognised and treated as an extremely valuable commodity. Far from being expensive and unrealistic, recycling e-waste can be a profitable business.

The average mobile phone is made up of around 23% metal, containing conventional elements like copper and tin alongside the rarer metals like cobalt and antimony. Of course, just one phone is only going to yield trace amounts of these metals – but if a workforce of 200 recycled their smartphones, laptops, mp3 players, tablets, home computers and other electronics, the potential profit flowing back into the economy or into a business suddenly skyrockets.

This is turn would be contributing to the new circular economy – a business model where organisations reduce their waste streams by reintroducing products back into the economy – set to save the UK economy £614 billion each year by 2025 and would create over 100,000 jobs within the first five years.

There are plenty of valuable opportunities in WEEE recycling, with plenty of money to be made for businesses who are focused on economic growth and reducing economic waste. As Liz Goodwin, CEO of WRAP recently said: “doing nothing is not an option.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by James Rubin .