We’re bright sparks at recycling electric items

CONSUMERS recycled a record number of electrical items last year but Ireland’s largest e-waste scheme has warned that its unsustainable targets need to change to reflect a more circular economy.

Despite ever-rising public awareness and participation, targets do not count circular strategies already undertaken by businesses and consumers to prevent e-waste arising, including reuse and repair.

WEEE Ireland, the waste management service, collected 18.7 million waste electrical items last year.

Some 127,000 fridges and 205,000 TVs and monitors were recovered, as well as more than 2.3 million light bulbs in a total takeback of 38,464 tonnes – 57% of the average goods sold over a three-year period. The equivalent of more than 54 million used AA batteries were also saved from ending up in landfill, the report shows.

However, WEEE Ireland chief Leo Donovan warned the changing nature of products means the recycling versus sales targets which benchmark the European WEEE system are ‘no longer fit for purpose’.

He said: ‘As a nation we are consuming more electrical goods than ever. The annual tonnage on the market rose by 50% in six years to 22kg a head last year, with 69 million units placed on the market in 2021.

‘We need to recognise that many larger appliances don’t reach end of life for many years through design and repair strategies.

‘If we are buying more electronics, we need to adopt a one plug in, one plug out mantra as we do not have enough raw materials in the ground to keep up with growing global demand.

‘Although our percentage takeback levels are far above the European average, the distance to our mandatory 65% takeback target is widening every year.

‘The changing nature of products and their lifecycles mean that the simple linear weight system is no longer fit for purpose.

‘If a laptop is repaired or reused it is not currently counted towards Ireland’s environmental performance.

‘New home technologies such as solar PV panels and heat pumps, for example, are large tonnage items which now have a lifespan of more than 15 to 20 years thanks to innovation by the producers.

‘They will not reach end of life for recycling for decades and yet still count in today’s target measurements. The same has happened in lighting, where long-lasting LED bulbs are changing the nature of the landscape previously dominated by short-use incandescent bulbs.

‘We need to rapidly incentivise the transformation to deliver a more circular and resource-efficient economy.

‘An all-actors approach is needed through documentation of the flows of all appliances and their materials in the value chain.’

In 2021, the equivalent of 231,179 tonnes of CO2 emissions were avoided by recycling e-waste through the WEEE Ireland scheme as opposed to landfilling – the equivalent of the annual carbon consumption of 4,624 hectares of trees.

An average of 94% of material was recovered for use again in manufacturing or final energy recovery.