WEEE Ireland Annual Report
WEEE Ireland Annual Report
WEEE Ireland is working towards achieving Members’ share of national targets for WEEE in the Republic of Ireland.
35,708 tonnes of WEEE were collected by WEEE Ireland for recycling in 2017. This represents 68% of all household and dual use EEE placed on the market by WEEE Ireland members and an average of 10.08 kg per person1.
WEEE Ireland coordinates collections of waste electrical and electronic equipment via three core channels: Retailers, Civic Amenity Sites and Special Collections*. Taken together, collections from these channels totalled 35,708 tonnes in 2017.
While growing from a low base, we are seeing promising increase in the takeback of smaller items, tools, toys and lighting equipment. See more detail about our small WEEE and lighting activity in our key projects.
An estimated 15,500,000 WEEE appliances were collected for recycling by WEEE Ireland in 20172 including;
In 2017 WEEE Ireland achieved a 46% waste portable battery collection rate, once again surpassing the EU target of 45%.
WEEE Ireland has designed and implemented programmes to ensure excellence in service, takeback and recovery rates for waste battery recycling since 2008. The ‘Blue Box’ has become synonymous with battery recycling in Ireland and this awareness is supported by the widespread collection point network WEEE Ireland has achieved across retailers, schools, business and other sectors.
Only portable waste batteries have a collection rate target defined in the 2006 Batteries Directive4. However, the Directive also placed significant responsibilities on Producers of all Battery types and to support all Battery Producers WEEE Ireland manages a national programme for the Industrial and Automotive sector.
5. National Transfrontier Shipment Office http://www.dublincity.ie/main-menuservices- water-waste-and-environment-waste-and-recycling-national-tfs-office/ntfso-waste
WEEE Ireland tracks the management of WEEE and Battery waste through the recycling process and measures the quality of this process. This is then benchmarked as recovery and recycling efficiency rates. WEEE Ireland continues to meet and exceed the high recovery targets required by the WEEE and Battery Directives on each category of WEEE and waste batteries.
WEEE Ireland worked with its colleagues on the WEEE Forum CO2 tool to create a “common methodology to calculate the environmental benefit of management of WEEE”. The type of WEEE collected, transport distances, treatment plant, quality systems, downstream processes and output fractions can all influence the positive impact of recycling.
When we compared recycling electrical and electronic waste in our WEEE Ireland system with landfilling in 2017, the equivalent of 214k tonnes of CO2 emissions were avoided. Thanks to proper environmental management of over 35k tonnes of WEEE in 2017, the following was achieved:
If waste fridges and freezers are not recycled properly or landfilled then Coolant gases are not removed and these VFC gases are released into the atmosphere adding to the greenhouse effiect. In 2017 WEEE Ireland captured 120,000 tonnes of CO2eq emissions by recycling at dedicated WEEELABEX fridge plants (equivalent to the consumption of over 13.5 million gallons of petrol).
The benefits of WEEELABEX standard recycling across Europe can contribute to a significant reduction in energy requirements and CO2 equivalent emissions. The quality recovery of materials can be reused in the manufacturing of new electronics.
Public Relations Results
Public relations activity is an integral part of the marketing
programmes delivered by the communications team. The
PR content generated achieved an Advertising Equivalent
Value10 of €855,000 in 2017, which indicates quality of
content and excellence in execution. The diagram below
demonstrates the strongest WEEE Ireland PR stories
delivered in 2017.
10. Advertising Equivalent Value is a measure of the size of the coverage gained, its placement and calculation of what
Delivery of Online Services
As part of a programme to improve online communications
in 2017, the team redesigned weeeireland.ie. Now responsive
to mobile devices the design of the new site has reduced
the number of phone calls to the Scheme and collections
requests from retailers have been converted to the online
form as shown here. There was a total of 145,000 visits
to our website in 2017.
Public Collection Day Awareness Results
In 2017, the communications team worked to increase
engagement with community groups and stakeholders.
This work is paying dividends as local recycling champions
are now advocates for our brand and recycling messages.
Increased e ciencies of operations and more targeted
promotions around Public Collection Events yielded
very clear and positive results.
The Power of Social Media
How many people saw WEEE Ireland awareness messages
on Facebook and Twitter? In total 1,800,000 people were
reached by our messages on these platforms in 2017. How
that looks on Facebook is shown below.
Engagement Driving Behaviour Change
Who engages with our content? A significantly higher proportion of females than males, the greatest portion are aged between 35-44 years. Engagement with content is proven to underpin behaviour change.
Key Results from WEEE Pledge Schools Education Programme
The WEEE Pledge schools programme yielded an important 28 tonnes of waste
batteries in 2017. Established in 2013, and with a network now of more than 2,500
schools, WEEE Pledge has built a long-term sustainable education and awareness
programme. Through its sponsorship of The Rediscovery Centre environmental
educational workshops, the programme was delivered to 8,000 students while
also supporting the worthy social enterprise. Running this programme has also
yielded additional invaluable benefits for WEEE Ireland.
Membership & Market Share
By 31 December 2017 WEEE Ireland had 927 Members,
including 57 new Producers who registered with the Scheme
last year. Over 120 of these Members had Authorised
Representatives undertaking registration on their behalf with
the Producer Register Ltd, reflecting the changes in
legislation under the 2014 Regulations.
Online sales are an increasing part of the consumer market place across Europe. Distance sellers into Ireland who are not part of existing registered supply chains can have both Producer and Retailer obligations. WEEE Ireland provides support and guidance on relevant requirements including authorised representation and take back on delivery for distance sellers.
WEEE Ireland and the Irish EPA participated in the WEEE Forum and Eucolight hosted event “EPR and the Impact of Online Sales” in Brussels in 2017 along with other key stakeholders from the Producer, DG Environment and Compliance Schemes.
WEEE Ireland Majority Market Share
The market share of the Compliance Scheme impacts its
designated geographic collection area. The WEEE Ireland
Scheme has been chosen as compliance provider for the
majority of Producers in Ireland for the 13th year in a row.
The national map continues to be coloured blue across 75%
of the country. WEEE Ireland are the only Scheme in Ireland
to provide compliance services for the lighting industry and
both Industrial and Lead acid battery Producers.
Members of WEEE Ireland will hold a valid certificate of Membership which is renewed each year following validation of renewal form data, confirmation of accurate, up to date Blackbox reporting and payment of all applicable fees to the Scheme. Producers who chose direct debit payment methods will always receive a discount on annual administration fees.
Compliance Support
The Technical and Operator auditing functions were
incorporated under the remit of the Compliance Department
in 2017. The Compliance Team has 3 core functions at WEEE
Ireland to support Members in meeting their environmental
management and Producer responsibilities.
Making IT Count
WEEE Ireland Producers report EEE by unit and weight to the
Producer Register Blackbox under a 10-category 30 plus sub
category system. By 2019 this will need to change to a
6-category open scope system in line with the 2012 Recast
Directive requirements
Checking IT Twice
WEEE Ireland audits its Members as part of its Compliance
Review programme. During 2017 240 compliance review
interactions were recorded with Members. This inhouse
programme checks the accuracy and completeness of data
being reported to the Blackbox as well as other compliance
responsibilities on Members e.g. information to users, website
and takeback obligations, weight recording system
WEEE Ireland, Whelan House, South County Business Park, Leopardstown, Dublin 18
Telephone: +353 (0)1 299 9320 Email: info@weeeireland.ie
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