The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive is now
UK law. The legislation aims to make producers pay for the collection, treatment and recovery of waste electrical equipment. The regulations also mean that suppliers of equipment like high street shops and internet retailers must allow consumers to return their waste equipment free of charge.
The amount of WEEE we throw away is increasing by around 5% each year, making it the fastest growing waste stream in the UK.
- Much of the UK’s WEEE ends up in landfill, where the lead and other toxins it contains can cause soil and water contamination.
This can have a harmful effect on natural habitat, wildlife and also human health.
- Many electrical items that we throw away can be repaired or recycled. Recycling items helps to save our natural finite resources and also reduces the environmental and health risks associated with sending electrical goods to landfill.
Distributors of new Electric and Electronic Equipment (EEE) have a part to play in reducing the amount of WEEE going into landfill sites.
Little Shop of Knowledge is obliged under these regulations to offer our customers free take-back of their WEEE on a like-for-like basis when they buy a new Electrical or Electronic product from us.
For example, if a customer bought a new remote control helicopter from
us we would accept their old remote control helicopter and prevent it
going into a landfill site by disposing of it safely. Customers must
return their WEEE item to us within 28 days of purchasing their new item.
Under the WEEE Regulations, all new electrical goods should now be
marked with the crossed-out wheeled bin symbol shown below:
Goods are marked with this symbol to show that they were produced after 13th August 2005, and should be disposed of separately from normal household waste so that they can be recycled.
How do you return WEEE items to Little Shop of Knowledge?
Here's an extract from the website of the department responsible for
overseeing the implementation of the WEEE regulations,
http://www.vca.gov.uk :
Take-back from online / mail order stores:
If as a distributor you sell EEE via the internet or mail order, and you have not joined the DTS, you will still need to provide a take-back service to the customer. The customer must be provided with an address that they can physically return, or send their WEEE
items to. Customers wishing to return a WEEE item must pay for any
transport costs incurred in returning the WEEE item to you.
What this means is that you should send items you are replacing back to us, at the following address:
Little Shop of Knowledge
2 City Arcade
Lichfield
Staffordshire
WS13 6LY
