Waste Electrical and Electronic
Equipment (WEEE) Directive

WEEE is the fastest growing waste stream in the UK, growing by at least 5% each year

We dispose of over 1.2 million tonnes of electrical and electronic waste every year in the UK from the public alone.

Each and every year, this is the equivalent of:

150,000 double decker busses or 164 Eiffel Towers or 200,000 African Elephants or 444,444 Range Rovers!!!

The amount of electrical waste created by members of the public in the UK would fill the new Wembley 6 times over every year!

The average UK citizen will discard of 3.3 tonnes of WEEE in a life time - equal to one double decker bus for each and every family.

Two million TV sets are discarded alone every year.

Electronic waste is increasing three times faster than average municipal waste and the EU estimates that WEEE currently accounts for 4% of total waste.

Much of the UK’s electronic waste ends up in landfill sites, where toxins put communities at risk. Failure to segregate any type of recyclable material in the home will usually result in items being disposed of in a landfill site (buried in the ground in the UK) or being incinerated.

It has been estimated that landfill space in the UK will run out within the next 10 years. Recycling WEEE will have significant effects on the environment.

Where WEEE is not recycled, this waste can have negative impacts on soil, air and water quality which can lead to environmental damage, and which can also lead to negative impacts on human health and animal heath.

The Crossed out wheeled bin symbol
You, as a consumer, should be aware that all new Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EEE) should be marked with this symbol. This symbol aims to encourage you to separate out your WEEE and to discard it separately from other household waste at one of the available recycling facilities in your area.