End-of-life issues are being resolved by a very successful electrical and electronic recycling programme

IT’S HARD to believe that before 2005, many of Ireland’s dead TVs and washing machines were being buried under us. Manufacturers of anything with a plug could shirk their end-of-life responsibilities, with goods turning up any where from landfill to limbo. But then the EU stepped in.

“The primary aim of the EU [waste from electrical and electronic equipment] directive was to divert electrical waste from landfill,” says Martin Tobin, chief executive of the Irish arm of the European Recycling Platform.

Founded in 2002, the not-for-profit company was formed when Braun, Electrolux, HP and Sony decided to steal a march on the new rules by setting up a mechanism for managing their waste from electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE).

Now it’s Tobin’s job to make sure every last gadget manufactured by the European Recycling Platform’s now 200 Irish members ends its life in recycling – and he’s enlisting everyone from Santa to night clubbers to do it.

Worldwide volumes of WEEE are rising. With Europe’s citizens discarding 6.5 million tonnes of electrical goods each year, 680 times the weight of the Eiffel Tower, the WEEE directive is one EU rule that’s hard to argue with.

“It’s the fastest growing waste stream in the world,” says Tobin. The average Irish 50-year-old couple has 90 electrical and electronic products in their house and an Irish child born in the last decade living until 2080 will generate as much as eight tonnes of such waste in their lifetime.

Tobin maintains that with the recycling of electrical goods in Ireland “free, convenient and hassle-free”, consumers have no excuse but to get with the programme.

“If you are buying an appliance, you are entitled to bring back your old appliance and leave it in the store where you are purchasing, free of charge,” he says.

In fact, it doesn’t matter if you didn’t purchase the original in that store or if it’s a different brand, the retailer must take it back.

In addition, any store selling batteries is required to take your old ones back, no purchase necessary.

The European Recycling Platform works hard to make recycling second nature. Its nationwide Be Free campaign sees collection sites pop-up up everywhere from cattle marts in Tralee to car parks in Castlepollard. As a purveyor of tonnes of electrical goods, Santa is forced to atone too, with the platform working with councils to get children to bring old batteries to his grotto in return for a gift.

Clubbers have also been enlisted and those bearing electrical waste were granted free admission to the recycling platform’s “million tonne” recycling party, a celebration of the company’s success in recycling a million tonnes of electrical waste in Europe. That’s the equivalent of taking four million cars off European roads for a year and preventing the emission of 11.2 million tonnes of CO2 through the recovery of raw materials.

This September the platform will again partner the Electric Picnic in a competition where budding artists design a sculpture made from WEEE to win weekend tickets to the festival. Going green has never been more hip.

Ensuring that manufacturers do their bit is done by audit says Tobin. “We go to producers and say this is what you’ve said you placed on the market, to run our business properly we need to audit them to make sure all the information is correct, and also to remind them of their obligations,” says Tobin.

European Recycling Platform Ireland in return is audited by the Environmental Protection Agency he says. “We have to demonstrate to them that we have treated every single kilogram of waste in strict accordance with the WEEE directive. We’ve been audited every year since 2005 and we’ve had zero non-compliances.”

So how does the recycling platform charge manufacturers for its work? “We charge our members based on the volume of waste we collect and treat on their behalf,” says Tobin. “They declare to us what they’ve placed on the market, which establishes their market share and their obligation, and when we collect the waste, we say here’s what we’ve collected, here’s your share of that, here’s your invoice.”

European Recycling Platform is one of two compliance schemes here – WEE Ireland with its own set of manufacturer members is the other. Territories are divided up between the two, with the volume of waste sold by members determining market share.

Now operating in 11 countries, European Recycling Platform says Ireland ranks third behind Norway and Denmark, where 19kg and 15kg of electrical waste per head of the population is recycled. Ireland recycles 8.8kg per head, with washing machines and TVs the items we recycle most.

While we rank over twice the EU-wide collection target of 4kg per head and just ahead the Department of the Environment’s own target of 7.6kg, a revision of the EU target set to take effect in the next 12 to 18 months will raise the bar, possibly up to 10kg.

But what can we do to catch up to our Nordic neighbours? “They are special people,” says Tobin. “I really think it’s down to culture.” However, he argues that Ireland, now outperforming the UK, France and Germany, is doing well.

“We were first up, best dressed and as a result we are a reference site right across Europe,” he says. “They look at us and go, ‘wow, how do you guys do it?’”