An assessment of achievements of the WEEE Directive in promoting movement up the waste hierarchy: experiences in the UK
- Submitting institution
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Nottingham Trent University
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 5 - 1202586
- Type
- D - Journal article
- DOI
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10.1016/j.wasman.2019.01.046
- Title of journal
- Waste Management
- Article number
- -
- First page
- 417
- Volume
- 87
- Issue
- -
- ISSN
- 0956-053X
- Open access status
- Compliant
- Month of publication
- February
- Year of publication
- 2019
- URL
-
-
- Supplementary information
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-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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3
- Research group(s)
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D - Product Innovation Centre
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- The European Union’s Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive was implemented to address one of the fastest growing waste streams, discarded electrical and electronic goods. The growth is due to rapidly developing technology and an increasing number of products containing electrical or electronic functions. Currently the dominant waste management approach is recycling, despite the established ‘waste hierarchy’ showing that waste prevention and reuse are generally preferable.
The research reported in this paper sought to identify and explore industry perspectives on the effectiveness of the WEEE Directive in the UK. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with 30 industry stakeholders across the EEE value chain. Despite the importance of the electronics waste stream to environmental and social sustainability, policy in this industry sector has not been subject to academic scrutiny in recent years. Cooper, one of the co-authors, wrote one of the earliest academic studies on the Directive, in 1994; he led the EPSRC project which funded the present research.
The interviews revealed that while reuse takes place for a limited number of product types, it is mostly on a small scale. Additionally, while legislation has prompted innovation in recycling and higher capture rates, resource recovery is, in practice limited to easily salvageable materials, with recovery of critical raw materials often neglected. Further, there is confusion around collection networks, particularly for small WEEE, which often appears in residual waste streams.
Moving to higher levels of the waste hierarchy is essential to sustainability. The paper proposes a series of measures to this end: promoting recovery routes and practices that facilitate reuse, adapting recycling technology to increase recovery of critical raw materials, and policies to improve application of the waste hierarchy. The research findings thus have potential to influence waste management company practices and inform future government policy on waste.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -