WEEE Compliance
Simplifying the recycling of waste electricals and electronic equipment
Overview
Our WEEE compliance scheme simplifies environmental compliance for companies making or importing electrical and electronic equipment. Our solution takes care of all your legal obligations from registration and reporting to collection and recycling.
Your responsibilities
What do I need to do?
If you place five or more tonnes of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) on the UK market, you need to join a WEEE compliance scheme like ERP UK and contribute to the costs of recycling a percentage of these.
Producers must register within 28 days of putting EEE onto the UK market.
If you are under the five-tonne threshold, you are still able to join ERP – contact us to discuss your options.
How ERP makes it easy for your business
We have collected over 40,000 tonnes of waste batteries across Europe and beyond.
We use this extensive network to collect the batteries that we need to meet our members’ obligations.
Value
Single price per tonne for each type of household electrical and electronic equipment.
Transparency
Clear pricing and invoicing that shows exactly what we do for you.
Support for takeback of your products
Take-back
ERP’s experienced operations team and UK-wide network of licensed waste carriers and treatment operators, can arrange for the collection and treatment of WEEE from your sites or your customers.
We can provide bespoke take-back solutions and other waste services, and our product take-back offer also includes specialist services, such as secure destruction, if required.
How does it all work?
Households can take WEEE to a local authority recycling centre for free. We arrange for the collection and reuse/recycling of this with funding from our members and utilising our UK-wide network of licensed waste carriers and treatment operators. We serve over 400 recycling centres in the UK, and our procurement manager regularly checks the market to ensure we’re paying the best prices for waste treatment and logistics services. In turn, we can provide the best prices to members.
WEEE Enquiry Form
Contact us
Compliance Services & Tender Enquiries – uk@erp-recycling.org
For all enquiries
- Telephone: +44 (0)20 3142 6452
- E-mail: uk@erp-recycling.org
Other ERP services
ERP UK website
Please visit: www.erp-recycling.org/uk
Landbell Group
ERP is part of the Landbell Group – the leading global supplier of environmental and chemical compliance solutions.
Find out more at: www.landbell-group.com
Temperature exchange equipment /Cooling appliances
Refrigerators, freezers, automatic cold products delivery machines.
Products include fridges, freezers, and any appliances with refrigerating devices such as water coolers. Some appliances also contain refrigerant gases classified as Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS) such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFC), hydrofluorocarbons (HFC) and hydro-chlorofluorocarbons (HCFC) that are now banned.
These gases are captured and treated in ODS recovery plants. Cold appliance de-pollution entails a variety of processes: compressors are decontaminated to recover ODS and oils; insulating foam is treated to recover ODS; metals are salvaged and resold, and plastics can be reused for new products. Recovered oils and ODS are destroyed in a specialised treatment process.
Recycling process
1. Decontamination
2. Shredding
3. Separation
4. Foam decontamination
Recovered materials
Gas
Oil
Capacitator
Plastic
Ferrous Metal
Foam
Display equipment
Televisions, screens, LCD, pc monitors
Display equipment includes cathode ray tubes (found in old-style TV sets and computer monitors) and flat-screen TVs and computer monitors, such as plasma and liquid crystal displays (LCD).
Cathode ray tubes (CRT) contain hazardous phosphor powder, leaded glass, copper, and other rare metals. These materials can be reused to make new products. Panel and funnel glass from the cathode ray tubes are also recovered. The coating on the funnel glass is removed and the glass is cleaned for new CRT manufacture.
Most LCD TVs use mercury lamps to light the screen. To remove the lamps, the appliance must be disassembled before processing the LCD screen. Research is currently being carried out to develop more effective, automated solutions.
Recycling process
1. Hand dismantling
2. Cathode ray tube separation (Pb, Ba)
3. Crushing and metal removal
4. Glass cleaning
Recovered materials
Ferrous Metal
Foam
Monitor body and electronics
Circuit Board
Leaded glass
Unleaded glass
Small Domestic Appliances
Vacuum cleaners, appliances for sewing, irons, toasters, electric knives, hairdryers, radio sets, electrical and electronic toys, luminaires;
This is the most complicated WEEE stream as a wide variety of materials can be recovered: wood, metal, plastic, glass, and cardboard.
This category includes appliances for cleaning (e.g. vacuum cleaners, carpet sweepers, etc.), appliances used for sewing, knitting, weaving and other processing for textiles, irons and other appliances for ironing, mangling and other care of clothing, toasters, fryers, grinders, coffee machines and equipment for opening or sealing containers or packages, electric knives, appliances for hair cutting, hair drying, tooth brushing, shaving, massage and other body care appliances, clocks, watches and equipment to measure, indicate or registering time, etc.
These appliances are shredded, and plastics are separated from metals. Initial decontamination includes the removal of ink toners, cartridges, batteries, and cables.
Recycling process
1. Manual pretreatment
2. Crushing
3. Picking station
4. Shredding
5. Separation
Recovered materials
Cables
Waste
Plastic
Fine materials
Ferrous Metal
Non-Ferrous Metal
Individual Components
Lamps
straight fluorescent lamps, compact fluorescent lamps, low-pressure sodium lamps, LED lamps.
This category includes fluorescent tubes and low-energy light bulbs, also known as compact fluorescent lamps (CFL), while old-style filament light bulbs and halogen lights are not categorised as WEEE.
Lamps are crushed and washed or treated in pressurised containers. Specialised machines are used to remove hazardous mercury and phosphor. Then, the remaining material is sorted into glass, metals, and plastics.
Phosphor powder and recovered mercury can be re-used to make new lamps. The crushed glass can be used for furnace linings or, if pure enough, to make new lamps. Aluminium end caps are smelted, and other metals are recycled.
Recycling process
1. Shredding
2. Separation
3. Dust recovery
Recovered materials
Ferrous Metal
Non-Ferrous Metal
Mercury
PV panels
Silicon-based PV panels require normal flat glass treatment and no special removal of the semiconductor layer.
Non-silicon-based PV panels require special semiconductor removal technology and isolation of toxic heavy metals.
Recycling process
1. Remove cables, plug and semiconductor
2. Separate aluminium and glass from the PV module
3. Remove labels
4. Reuse or recycle the EVA film and recover chemical elements such as cadmium and selenium
5. Separate into fractions
(EVA film, Aluminium, Wafer, Cable and plastic plug, Semiconductor, Glass)
6. Recycle the glass fraction in a smelter
Recovered materials
Leaded glass
Individual Components
Plastic
Unleaded glass
Cables
Metal
Cadmium
IT Equipment
Computers, printers, GPS, mobile phones, routers, and mousepads
Recycling process
Weee
Weee
Weee
Recovered materials
Plastic
Lead
Cobald
Nickel
Metal
Manganese
Mercury
Acid
Zinc
Cadmium