THE WEEE directive became European Law in 2003 and is an instruction about recycling waste electrical and electronic equipment.

It became operative in the UK in 2007. Without it we would be knee deep in old fridges, TVs and computers.

Recently I saw dozens of gardens, driveways and waste bins and I was surprised to see the quantity of such waste being thrown out. There were at least half a dozen fridges, a couple of washing machines, numerous old TVs and some bits of electronic gadgetry that I did not recognise but could have been games consoles.

I hope it has all been put out waiting for the council’s bulky waste service to collect, and it should help that this is free of charge for all electrical goods (telephone 01274 431000). They are sent to a local firm, Waste Care, who sort it all out. This involves repairing some of it for reuse, carefully degassing the fridges to remove the CFCs and other climate-changing chemicals, and wiping the memories of the computers before they are broken up to reclaim some very rare metals.

The alternative is that they are fly-tipped, or collected by unregulated scrap dealers who drive round looking to see what is available. In these cases the escape of the CFCs and the burning of foam packing is a damaging and avoidable addition to the climate-change gases entering the atmosphere, helping raise the temperature as well as slowing the rate of the ozone hole’s repair.

The global amount of this waste is growing relentlessly — some 42 million tonnes last year, with most per capita from the rich countries such as Denmark, Norway, America, Canada, the UK and Japan. They are all more than 25kg per person each year, compared with under 2kg for every African.

Barely one sixth of these items are recycled and dealt with properly, and ship loads are still sent to overseas countries to be dumped and picked over by poor and ill-protected people. Most of the equipment is manufactured to ensure that it cannot be easily repaired, or have a simple replacement for a defective part.

It would help if the designs made it possible to keep the equipment working for much longer, with proper recycling taking place, so that they could be repaired and used again.

There is a strong argument for this circular economy.

THE WEEE directive became European Law in 2003 and is an instruction about recycling waste electrical and electronic equipment. It became operative in the UK four years later, and without it we would be knee deep in old fridges, teles and computers.

I have recently seen dozens of gardens, drive ways and waste bins and I was surprised to see the quantity of such waste being thrown out. There were at least half a dozen fridges, a couple of washing machines, numerous old teles and some bits of electronic gadgetry that I didn’t recognise, but could have been games consoles.

I hope it’s all been put out waiting for the Council’s Bulky Waste Service to collect, and it should help that this is free of charge for all electrical goods (tel. 01274 431000). They are sent to a local firm, Waste Care, who sort it all out. This involves repairing some of it for re-use, carefully degassing the fridges to remove the CFCs and other climate changing chemicals, and wiping the memories of the computers before they are broken up to reclaim some very rare metals.

The alternative, of course, is that they are fly-tipped, or collected by unregulated scrap dealers who drive round looking to see what’s available. In these cases the escape of the CFCs and the burning of the foam packing is a very damaging, and avoidable addition to the climate change gases entering the atmosphere, helping to raise the temperature as well as slowing the rate at which the ozone hole is repairing.

The global amount of this waste is growing relentlessly, some 42 million tonnes last year, with most per capita from the rich countries such as Denmark, Norway, America, Canada, the UK and Japan. They’re all over 25 kg per person each year, compared with under two kg for every African.

Frustratingly barely one sixth of these items are recycled and dealt with properly, and ship loads are still sent to overseas countries to be dumped and picked over by poor and ill protected people.

In the same way that it’s now very difficult to get a pair of shoes mended most of the equipment is manufactured to ensure that it can’t be easily repaired, or have a simple replacement for a defective part.

It would certainly help if the designs made it possible to keep the equipment working for much longer, with proper recycling taking place, so that they could be repaired and used again.

There’s a strong argument for this circular economy, which uses far fewer raw materials and creates employment within the local community, as well as less CO2.