Tech recycling law will hit in New Year

Green may be a vote winner but you wouldn’t know it from the government’s feeble attempts to enact the European tech recycling directive WEEE into UK legislation. Other states managed to roll out the directive on schedule but the UK is at least a year behind and has dragged its feet all the way thanks to some heavy-weight lobbying from the tech producers. But from the 2 January next year, the Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment directive will be law – although typically we still have to wait till July for full compliance to be enforced. So what does it all mean? Well effectively it means that manufacturers will be liable for the entire lifecycle of a piece of kit. A lot of this burden will rest on the manufacturers but obviously they are going to pass on those costs to the consumers. But instead of everyone paying for tech to be recycled, or disposed of, through council taxes etc, the biggest purchasers and manufacturers will have to cover the costs.