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WOT? Insights into the flows and fates of e‐waste in the UK
WOT? Insights into the flows and fates of e‐waste in the UK
Stowell, Alison; Yumashev, Dmitry; Downes, Sarah
FG Transdisziplinäre Nachhaltigkeitsforschung in der Elektronik
In 2019 the EU Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive documented a
sizable increase in e-waste collection targets alongside a wider scope of electronic and electrical
products covered by the legislation. These changes have significant impact for the UK, as for the past
two years UK waste collected has failed to meet the newly adopted set of targets. Understanding the
flows and fates of products on and off the market becomes of paramount importance, especially for
producer-led organisations who have the responsibility to achieve the targets and cover the operational
costs. Historic e-waste estimation methods often assume that one product on the market will equate to
one product in the waste stream. In this article, we report on a project commissioned by one of the
largest UK producer-led organizations – REPIC Ltd, in search of an explanation of the observed dropin
products on the market and WEEE collected, and the relationship between the two. We argue that
we should move away from “one product in and one product out” assumption to include wider
parameters that are tailored specifically for the UK, including those linked with the state of the market
for electronic and electrical products and of the wider economy, examples include inflation-adjusted
GDP per capita, consumer confidence index (CCI), inflation indices (CPI or RPI), number of households,
wealth distribution etc. We show how this can be achieved by adapting a state-of the-art e-waste
estimation model (Waste Over Time) to the UK context and developing it further to include additional
drivers.
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