Businesses have a legal duty to comply with WEEE regulations when disposing of electrical and electronic products. Avena Group asked for a blog post that explains the legal requirements and draws attention to how they can help businesses comply.
Do you need a secure way to dispose of your WEEE Waste?
What is WEEE?
WEEE stands for Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment and is a European directive aimed at reducing the volume of electrical and electronic products going to landfill. At the time of writing, it seems likely that this directive will still be enforced in a post-Brexit Britain.
It applies to all domestic, commercial and industrial waste, and in simple terms covers anything powered by electricity, whether that comes from batteries, a mains supply or even from the product’s own solar cells.
These products typically contain a large proportion of recyclable plastics but also substances such as lithium, mercury or other heavy metals that are hazardous to the environment if dumped in landfill.
Why use a licenced WEEE recycling service?
First of all, this is a legal requirement. Only licence holders can operate a WEEE authorised treatment facility (ATF) site. Beware of persons offering to remove electrical and electronic waste items for less than licenced operators, as you have a duty of care to ensure your waste is correctly disposed of.
Professional WEEE-compliant recycling ensures these substances are safely contained and in many cases, reused. If minerals can be recycled from scrap equipment, mining of new and often finite resources is also reduced.
A professional service also handles the entire process, from collection from your premises to issuing a certificate of destruction for your records.
However, not all WEEE-accredited destruction services offer confidential destruction of the data storage components often contained in equipment such as computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones and even office printers.
WEEE + GDPR + Secure Destruction = Avena
Avena is a secure, documented confidential waste destruction services company, fully compliant with BSEN:15713-2009 to ensure your confidential waste is destroyed following GDPR requirements.
Your electrical and electronic waste will also be collected and processed by our BS7858 security vetted team. Further security measures include collection in unmarked vans, protected with CCTV cameras and real-time satellite tracking, and secure storage and destruction in a CCTV-protected destruction and recycling facility.
For more information on Avena WEEE recycling and disposal services, contact us on 0845 521 9892 or via our website.