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IRELAND’S LARGEST ELECTRICAL and battery recycling scheme had its most successful year in 2017.
WEEE Ireland recycled a total of 35,708 tonnes of e-waste and 874 tonnes of waste batteries from Irish householders, consumers and businesses last year, according to its annual report.
It was a record-breaking year for the scheme, which achieved a collection rate of more than 10kg of e-waste for every single person in Ireland.
Nearly half of all the e-waste recycled was large household appliances such as dishwashers, ovens and washing machines, which can be returned to retailers for recycling on delivery of new appliances.
Among the items recycled were an estimated:
Recycling the 35,708 tonnes of waste led to the recovery of 18,000 tonnes of iron and 830 tonnes of copper.
This is enough iron for 2.5 Eiffel towers and enough copper for 27 Statues of Liberty.
“We are extremely proud of these results and want to thank every person who recycled even one item of e-waste,” the CEO of WEEE Ireland, Leo Donovan, said.
However, we can’t become complacent. We will only achieve long-term change and benefits for the environment if we continue to manage our e-waste responsibly.
WEEE Ireland also surpassed EU targets in waste portable battery collections, where the quantity collected increased from 812 to 874 tonnes.
Donovan said this marks another successful year for the LauraLynn ‘Every Battery Counts’ campaign and is testament to how the ‘Blue Box’ has become synonymous with battery recycling in schools, retailers and businesses across Ireland.
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Great to see – now lets really tackle packaging waste and force business to make the environmentally correct choice when choosing their packaging – We need to get rid of plastic bottles, plastic wrapping and one off coffee cups and lids
@brian boru:
Bring in another tax…..
@P.J. Nolan: not all taxes are bad – some make sense and others are just greedy – if taxes make it cost effective for a business to do the right thing then it is a good tax in my book. Some are greedy and corrupt like the Irish water plan and need to be fought but smart taxation can be beneficial to society.
All the chocolate bar companies have moved to plastic wrapping because it costs less. Like wise the soft drink companies have moved to plastic bottles because they are prettier. Neither are thinking about the environment and need to be forced to rethink their packaging plans. Taxation is the fastest route to getting these huge companies to change their game plan at the speed we need it to happen.
@brian boru: I would be far more comfortable if chocolate bars once again came in paper and foil. I know they wont recycle the foil but i’m sure it does far less than damage to the environment than plastic.
@Darren Byrne: The plastic gives a longer shelf life so the chocolate companies are using it to give them higher margins at the cost of the environment. Regulatory needs to step in and drive a higher cost to the manufacturer for using the plastic due to the environmental cost. Am sure if the right pressure was applied a solution could be arranged that worked for everyone. The only lever I can think of in this situation is taxation as expecting people to make the change will take generations.
@brian boru: I’m sure it does give longer shelf life, but surely chocolate is a fast-selling item with a high turnover rate? And once bought? I’ve often eaten a square or two and put it away for a week or so, okay, I’m odd, but a lot of people seem to eat bars very quickly once they have some in the house – I’ve even heard of people freezing a bar to keep it for later. I honestly don’t see chocolate as being in any danger of going off before it’s consumed.
It’s fantastic the system works, now let’s solve the plastic bottles ( bottle water ) and the coffee cup problem .
Great and more to be done… especially with plastic
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/plasticpledge/?beta=true
Where are all the reusable items stripped out of the WEEE appliances. Is it Ireland, UK, Europe.
Surely it’s not Africa where all that toxic stuff is released in both the air and the soil/water, by burning all that plastic stuff that covers wires and other components by folks trying to scrape a living together ?
Any answers appreciated. Hope I’m wrong.
Is a dildo a small appliance? Just asking
@Seriously stunned: that all depends on the wife’s choice in style
@Seriously stunned: that all depends on the wife’s choice in style
If domestic appliances were designed and built to last longer than the now average 5 to 10 years lifespan then recycling would be greatly reduced.The average lifespan of some appliances twenty or thirty years ago was averaging ten to twenty years .Most appliances now have built in obsolescence.
Great, but after the specials on Aldi and Lidl this Sunday, we’ll need extra capacity!
You are going to have a great bunch of lads moistening their lips when you talk about that much copper
This just demonstrates the amount of junk we buy throw out and replace. Thats not sustainable
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