How do you ensure maximum reuse of electrical appliances?

The Western world produces a huge mountain of electronic waste – or WEEE.
And it really is a huge mountain.

Approximately 30kilo of WEEE is thrown away per Dutch citizen per year.
This adds up to more than 500 million kilos per year.
Some of this unfortunately goes away via ordinary household waste and the incinerator.

Furthermore, part of the WEEE ( Electronic Waste ) we produce in our country is illegally exported to third world countries.
There it is often reprocessed on totally irresponsible and polluting way.
And about a tenth part is exported again as second hand working appliance.

Government recycling goals

Several years ago, the European and Dutch governments set targets to ensure that a significant portion of WEEE is put back to good use.
Ultimately, they want at least 85% of WEEE to be recycled.
An excellent objective it seems to me.

To meet this objective, weeelabex certification has been made mandatory for all companies dealing with WEEE.

How IT Recycling has that certification and how we do it you can see on our website, we publish our recycling figures and you can see that over the years we always end up much higher than that 85% that our government has set as a goal.

So if you have your old computers and hardware picked up by IT Recycling, the recycling will be just fine. But that’s only for businesses and for computer waste. What about if you have old electrical and electronic appliances as a private person?

So what can you do yourself to ensure that as much electronic waste as possible is properly recycled?

1. The first is to PREVENT preventing waste.
   The best thing for the environment is just to use the device longer.
   If an appliance breaks down you can throw it away but it is better to fix the appliance and then use it for a while longer.
   For example, I myself have been able to repair household appliances several times thanks to parts I found on the Fixpart.co.uk website .
   There really are parts of just about every electrical appliance imaginable on there.
   So you can buy a new vacuum cleaner, but you can also buy a carbon brush for a few euros and happily continue vacuuming.

2. REUSE : Don’t throw it away but make someone else happy with it.
   Put your old appliance on Marktplaats.nl or make someone happy with it.
   Better to give away a discarded appliance than throw it in the trash.

3. RECYCLING : that is, recycling metals and plastics.
   I already wrote that about 10% of WEEE in our country ends up in the garbage.
   And that is really a waste.
   Moreover, it is very well regulated by the government.
   All WEEE that comes out of the household you can drop off for free at the recycling center.
   They then make sure it gets to the right address and is recycled properly.
   When it comes to refrigerators and freezers, they also take care of the proper disposal of the environmentally dangerous CFC refrigerant.

   The corner hardware store is not certified to take in old white and brown goods, so I would not recommend giving your old washing machine to the hardware store.

4. OLD FOR NEW regulation : If you buy household appliance, the store is obliged to take back your old appliance. This all costs money but is funded by the disposal fee. But note that computers and laptops are an exception. Individuals can bring their old computer junk to the municipal yard and business users have IT Recycling which collects computer waste from businesses for free.

So it is really no trouble – and free of charge for the individual – to take care of proper recycling.
Discarded electrical appliances among household waste is really a waste and polluting.