WEEE Compliance
WEEE Compliance stands for the European regulation of Waste of electrical and electronic equipment. Each year around 40 to 50 million metric tons of e-waste is generated worldwide.
In fact IT hardware- such as Servers, storage, networking- are one of the fastest growing e-Waste streams in Europe and elsewhere in the world. So, e-wastes related to IT equipment is a very crucial factor in today’s world. This article explains what WEEE compliance is and how it is redefining e-Waste management.
E-Waste management
Back in 2016, the Global E-waste Monitor report 2017 stated that in that year alone “44.7 million metric tons of e-waste were generated”. Such amount of e-waste is equivalent to 4.500 Eiffel towers. The report further highlights the need for better e-waste e-waste management and more safe data and information recycling.
What is causing tremendous amount of e-Waste?
But what is causing such tremendous amount of e-Waste? The main factors to mention are:
- forced upgrades of IT equipment
- lack of IT support for existing hardware from service providers
This is why millions of computers and IT hardware are dumped on a yearly basis. As a consequence, the environment is negatively influenced. As such e-Waste leaves behind lead, cadmium, mercury and other hazardous wastes and increases the carbon footprint each year.
E-Waste regulations
The European Union (EU) has therefore set up regulations to redefine e-Waste management:
In 2003, the European Union came with the Directive on the confinement of the utilization of certain dangerous substances in electrical and electronic hardware.
Resulting in February 2003 into the first WEEE Directive on waste electrical and electronic gear.
What does it mean to be WEEE compliant?
But, how to recycle your IT hardware as a business? And what does it mean to be WEEE compliant? In other words, how to comply with the WEEE regulations? To implement the WEEE administration and add to the circular economy, it is important to optimize asset productivity and improve the process of collecting, processing and reusing existing IT hardware.
Thus:
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- The creation of advanced hardware requires the utilization of rare and costly assets.
E.g. around 10% of aggregate gold worldwide is utilized for their creation.
- It can bring about major natural and well being issues, if not legitimately disposed.
- The WEEE Directive helps to blend existing materials and to reduce unsafe substances.
Why companies need to replace existing working hardware?
Why do companies need to replace their existing hardware if it still is stable and can still be used without any problems? Reports suggest that service providers are using a business strategy called “planned obsolescence”. They use this method to decrease product lifespans. It is a way to produce and sell more of the so called “new and improved” product versions.
An alternative way
However, IT hardware can easily be recycled. Evernex ensures business organization maintenance support coverage. Even after the companies’ IT hardware has gone past the planned End-of-life and End-of-support dates. The overall objective, of course, is to maximize every dollar. In this way, using services from a Third-PArty Maintenance (TPM) provider, such as Evernex leads to:
- Cost reduction: A company only purchases what is really needed
- Increase ROI: Spending less also increases the Return on Investment (ROI) of existing Company IT equipment.
Yet, If there is genuine need for upgrade due to increase in demand or change in the operational plans to accommodate the growth of the company then Evernex can assist the companies with the upgrade keeping in mind cost savings and feasibility.
Evernex is a single point of contact and has a track record of providing IT recycling solutions and IT support services all under one roof.
Companies seeking to dispose their out of use hardware, get in touch with the experts at Evernex.
