Q2 WEEE data published

03 SEPTEMBER 2010

For those interested in statistics, the EA have published Q2 data for EEE placed on the market and WEEE collected in the UK. Following last year's amendments to the Regulations, non-household EEE only gets reported once a year so will not be available until the end of the first quarter next year for the whole of 2010.

The data is extremely boring as unlike packaging data, it has no impact on evidence prices. It also stays tediously consistent. Nevertheless, there are one or two vaguely interesting facts that come out of it.

The graph below shows that the amount of household electrical equipment being sold - in tonnage terms - has continued to decline whilst the amount of WEEE collected continues to increase. The amount of reported business WEEE - ie the weight of collected business WEEE that has evidence issued against it - has also continued to decline, totalling 3k tonnes vs 2.75 for the same period last year.

In percentage terms, the amount of household WEEE vs EEE stands at 43% compared to 41.5% last year. Given that the EU is looking to apply targets around 65% from 2016 under revisions to the Directive, the rate of growth achieved would suggest quite a challenge if that comes about especially as that target would include business WEEE which at the moment, pulls the overall UK achievement down to around 34%.

One interesting statistic relates to display equipment. Whilst the weight of display equipment sold declines - reflecting, presumably, the move to flat screens - the weight of waste display equipment continues to climb and for this year, now stands at 127% of the weight sold compared to 104% for the first 6 months of last year. For those that place this equipment on the market, it presents an increasing cost as effectively, for every tonne they place on the market, they have to pay £3-400 in evidence costs, the equivalent of £7-10 on each new TV sold.

The data shows that the UK is still collecting well in excess of the 4kg per head target required by the EU Directive although it has remained pretty static since the Regulations started at around 7.5kgs. In Q2, it went up slightly to7.7kgs.