Jane Powerson Weee
Every time we buy Eee we have to pay a PRF for when it eventually becomes Weee.
Don't you love the EU and its acronyms and initialisms? We're going to be hearing an awful lot more of the above, because Weee, it seems, is the fastest-growing "waste stream" in Europe and the US. In other words, we're throwing away electrical and electronic equipment (Eee) faster than ever. (Stick "waste" in front of it and it becomes Weee.) The producer recycling fund (PRF) is that extra whack that is bunged on to just about everything you buy now that has a plug or battery.
The PRF ensures that our Weee no longer ends up in the ditches, bogs and rivers of Ireland. Instead, sellers of electrical and electronic goods are obliged to take back a similar used item when they sell you a new one: when you buy a new kettle, the retailer must accept your old one, no matter where you acquired it. (If you bought it before August 13th, 2005, it's known as historic Weee. I kid you not.)
The PRF also helps pay for civic amenity sites, where you can drop off your Weee free of charge. (Well, it's not really free, because, remember, you're the one who shelled out the PRF.) Today, the penultimate day of Repak's annual recycling week, is Weee day, and a number of additional collection points will be open (from 10am to 4pm). See www.weeeireland.ie for more information.
Every bit of Weee that is collected is dismantled and separated into its different materials, which are either recycled or disposed of as safely as possible. Last year 20,892 tonnes of it was collected in Ireland: 95,000 fridges and freezers, 290,000 other large household appliances, 375,000 small household appliances, 95,000 televisions, 345,000 bits of IT equipment and computer monitors, 65,000 power tools, 210,000 pieces of sundry consumer equipment and 1,322,000 fluorescent lamps.
Some of it is dealt with in Ireland, but much ends up being shipped abroad. Fridges and freezers, for instance, are sent to the UK, Germany and Belgium. And although fluorescent tubes are dealt with here, the hazardous mercury they contain is sent elsewhere for treatment. Of all our Weee, 1 per cent ends up as hazardous waste, 22 per cent goes to landfill and 77 per cent is recovered.
The EU target is to collect four kilos of Weee per head of population each year. In 2006 Ireland reached a figure of almost double that. Which means we're great recyclers. But we're also fierce consumers.