Ireland has surpassed its Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment (WEEE) targets, collecting over 14,500 tonnes of electrical waste in the first seven months the Minister for the Environment said yesterday.
Since the introduction of the WEEE directive, whereby retailers and producers must take in old electronic equipment when new equipment is sold, 11,000 tonnes of fridges and freezers and over 1,000 televisions have been collected.
However, the European Recycling Platform (EPR) which collected 42 per cent of all wastage since last August, noted that counties Monaghan, Donegal, Limerick and Kildare are producing low quantities of WEEE. Counties Cavan, Cork, Meath, Louth and the Fingal region exceeded the national average.
Under EU targets, Ireland is required to produce 4kg of WEEE per person by 2008, but according to Minister for the Environment Dick Roche, Ireland is currently exceeding this by 50 per cent with an annual collection rate of 6.7kg per person.
"Fine Gael claimed the scheme was botched and left consumers and retailers confused. The Labour Party predicted it would impose a huge burden on business and indeed bankrupt small businesses. . . clearly the prophets of doom in both parties were off the mark," said Mr Roche.
A spokesman for the EPR John Hayes added that while the response from the industry and the consumer had been "exceptional", some counties were performing below the national average. "Very often where we recover lower than average quantities of WEEE in a given county, it is either as a result of fewer civic recycling facilities or a smaller number of major shopping outlets," said Mr Hayes.
Over the last seven months householders have been able to take electrical items to civic amenity sites where local authorities take the waste products for free.