Widespread ignorance of law on disposal of IT equipment

These are the findings of an environmental survey by MIREC Asset management, based in Dumfries, Scotland which tested awareness of the European Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive.

It also found that only one in ten businesses has any knowledge that the unauthorised dumping of information and communications technology (ICT) equipment will become illegal when the WEEE Directive becomes law in the UK, which is due to happen by August 2005.

Currently, 65% of UK businesses are failing to dispose of their ICT equipment in a manner that complies with the new regime.

More than 45% of these businesses continue to "dump" redundant equipment. Of the ICT equipment discarded in the 100 UK companies surveyed, 16% is simply thrown out.

One would-be respondent told MIREC, "We are a small company so I don't see how legislation would affect us. We would throw anything in a skip". Another 2.25% of discarded ICT equipment goes to landfill.

MIREC comments that, while the figures showed that the Government has a major task to change existing methods of disposal, the survey suggests that there are indications that some UK businesses are already adopting their own positive systems for disposal.

Almost half the businesses surveyed (47%) either claimed to resell or pass on for re-use their old equipment. Families and friends become the main beneficiaries in many cases (48%) with a further 30% passed to charities and 'not-for-profit' organisations.

The figures also demonstrated that 24% of businesses are recycling electronic and electrical equipment. This shows a marked increase from MIREC's survey results one year ago, when only 15% committed to methods of recycling. The use of disposal agents climbed from 12% to 19% with council collection schemes also viewed as a suitable way to dispose of materials – rising from 3% to 5%.

The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive governs the disposal of waste electric and electronic equipment and will affect every company in the UK.

While the ultimate responsibility for disposal will lie with the equipment producers – a group which includes manufacturers, sellers and resellers of own brand equipment and importers and exporters of electrical and electronic equipment into the UK – a proposed amendment to the Directive may shift yet more responsibility onto the end user.

Businesses will therefore have to ensure that their disposal methods comply with the law by August 2005.

The survey, which focussed on the individuals who are responsible for buying new equipment, also found a general environmental "ignorance" among Britain's businesses.

On average, 44% of respondents claimed that they either knew nothing about their company's environmental obligations or did not feel responsible for their company's compliance. This rose to 55% among the companies with the heaviest use of ICT equipment.

Morgan Johnson, Managing Director of MIREC Asset Management, said:

"UK business is falling behind the rest of Europe when it comes to environmental concerns. UK companies are suffering from a lack of information, a lack of guidance and a lack of resource to enable them to comply with imminent legislation. The government is taking the first steps with the current DTI consultation exercise and we hope that this will begin to help businesses meet their future legal obligations."