A recent article on Lets Recycle revealed that there is much concern with consumers over potential threats to their data being at risk on end of life electrical items. A survey which was taken in September by another compliance scheme identified that people are reluctant to dispose of their end of life electrical products due to fear that their personal data may be breached. 

Broken down into age groups, the survey showed that the most concerned are 16-29 year olds and 31% of those questioned did not know where or how to dispose of their old electrical items. 

The survey also suggests a move by the general public to donate, sell or pass on electricals that are still in good working order. Respondents are most likely to give electronics and gadgets to a friend or family member (39%), sell them online (34%) or take them to a charity shop (31%).

The Driving and Vehicle Standards Agency have issued a warning to all waste carriers who are operating illegally. This comes on the back of the agencies concerns that these carriers are putting other road users at huge risk. 

The Chief Executive of  the DVSA has said they are committed to protecting the public from unsafe drivers and vehicles.

He said “By combining our enforcement powers and intelligence with that of the Environment Agency, we’re effectively targeting waste operators breaking the rules and putting themselves and other road users at risk. We won’t hesitate to issue fines, or take vehicles off our roads, if we find waste carriers operating in an unsafe manner.”

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The Environment Agency has announced it will take the necessary steps to stop illegal waste carriers and improve road safety in England.

The agency has said that companies must register as a waste carrier if they either transport waste, or buy, sell or dispose of waste. They added that some carriers operate illegally without the necessary licence, and do not dispose of waste legally.

Any business that uses a waste carrier must check that they are registered to dispose of waste and not allow the waste carrier to dispose of their waste illegally, the EA has warned.

The Agency said: “Every year waste crime costs taxpayers and businesses £1 billion. The Environment Agency spent almost £15 million stopping illegal waste activity between April 2015 and March 2016.”

The Environment Agency and DVSA will share intelligence and carry out joint operations in England to stop waste being illegally transported, and target unsafe drivers and vehicles. As part of the agreement, enforcement teams will also be provided with up-to date and relevant intelligence about waste industry operators.

A Producer Compliance Scheme has warned that sellers of up to 20% of the total of LED lamps sold to consumers in the UK may be in breach of WEEE regulations.

The warning which was announced by Recolight comes after the organisation, which focuses on WEEE compliance for the lamp and lighting sector, gathered data to estimate the scale of WEEE non-compliance through some online retailers.

Recolight’s findings have focused on LED lamps sold through multi-seller online retailers, and has been submitted to consultants preparing a report for the OECD on the impact of online sales on WEEE compliance.

Under the current WEEE regulations, producers and distributors of electrical goods are required to finance the collection and treatment of their products at the end of life.

Recolight claims that many online sellers, particularly those based outside of the EU but selling through established international retail websites (with UK presence), may be placing their goods onto the market without registering with a WEEE compliance scheme in the UK.

The Plastics Recycler Luxus, Nordic processor Polykemi and plastics manufacturer One51 have secured a total of £1.29m in investment from the EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme for a project to sort black plastic waste.

The Horizon 2020 programme “promises more breakthroughs, discoveries and world-firsts by taking great ideas from the lab to the market”.

The funding will contribute towards a two-year project aimed at replacing carbon black and many other pigments with near-infrared (NIR) detectable alternatives.

Currently black plastic packaging (usually in the form of ready meal trays) is coloured using carbon black pigments, which do not enable the pack to be sorted by the existing optical sorting systems used widely in plastics recycling as the black pigment reflects little or no light.