Many of you, like ourselves, have been recycling household waste for years now. The not infrequent trips to a recycling facility with boxes of tins, bottles, newspapers and even plastic in some cases, are an integral part of our lives.

But voluntary recycling was never going to reach any great targets due to general apathy in some of the population.

Some local authorities have introduced the provision of a selection of containers to each household, into which the occupants are required to sort their waste for recycling purposes. If only we here were so lucky!

Some households haven't even made the effort to put their waste in the correct containers and have subsequently been fined - how easy do they want it? Some councils are now proposing that households have 'smart wheelie bins' with electronic chips inside.

So the population as a whole is being forced into taking responsibility for the waste it produces.

Whilst by some this is almost seen as an infringement of their civil rights (as if they have the 'right to pollute'), no-one can argue with the vast amounts of waste we now produce in the 'developed world'.

WASTE PRODUCTION IN THE UK

• Electrical and Electronic - over one million tonnes of this waste is disposed of every year from non-household sources in addition to a million tonnes from households, the mountain of old fridges alone (still getting bigger), serves as a pinnacle of disposable achievement.
• Packaging - packaging waste alone is estimated to be around 10 million tonnes per year with half coming from the commercial and industrial sector and half from household waste.
• Household - between 1995/96 and 2005/06 household waste per person increased by 14% with each person generating, on average, just over half a tonne.

The UK has many more sources of waste. If you want further information on UK and EU waste and recycling visit the Defra website, it makes an interesting read.

NEW LEGISLATION REGARDING ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT
The recycling arena was brought firmly into focus on July 1, 2006 when the UK government adopted the European Union directives on WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment), and ROHS (Restriction of Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment). All equipment placed for sale on the EU market must comply with ROHS.

WEEE promises financial penalties for failing to deal with waste correctly, whereas ROHS promises financial penalties for not paying heed to the restrictions regarding certain hazardous substances in the manufacturing and sale of electrical equipment in the EU.

ROHS will apparently make dealing with future electrical waste easier. Equipment manufactured prior to August 13, 2005 will now be known as 'historical waste'.

These regulations came into force in the UK on July 1, 2007.

Stringent controls are now in place to make member states ensure that a high level of separate collection of all electronic waste is achieved in order to ensure human health and high environmental protection by use of the best available treatment, recovery and recycling techniques.

EU Member States are required, by the WEEE directive, to ensure that users of such electrical and electronic equipment in private households are given the necessary information about:

• (a) the requirement not to dispose of WEEE as unsorted municipal waste and to collect such WEEE separately;
• (b) the return and collection systems available to them;
• (c) their role in contributing to reuse, recycling and other forms of recovery of WEEE;
• (d) the potential effects on the environment and human health as a result of the presence of hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment;
• (e) the meaning of the symbol which is to be placed on all new compliant equipment.

Have you received any such information through your letter box from the government? We haven't - and we estimate this is going to be a total nightmare to implement properly in line with the legislation. It is an extremely complex area with far-reaching implications.

For example, did you realise that energy-saving lightbulbs (CFLs) have a small amount of mercury in them, as have the long fluorescent tubes we have been using for decades? It's also quite likely that the CFLs have lead in the solder of the contacts. Now that people are unsure as to whether even lightbulbs should be disposed of in your 'general composite waste' it may well take some time for things to sort themselves out.