Britain worst in Europe for electrical recycling
June 26, 2009 at 3:37 pm
Britain has picked up the wooden spoon in a recent survey looking into the electrical recycling habits of Europeans. According to the results of the new research, we are apparently the worst in Europe when it comes to recycling WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment).
WEEE comprises such devices as mobile phones, PCs, laptops and games consoles, and the research carried out by Dell suggests that we are falling way behind the rest of the continent when it comes to recycling these products.
The survey questioned 5,000 people across Europe regarding their recycling habits when it comes to old electronic products, and found that in Britain only half of consumers take appropriate recycling steps, compared to an impressive 80% of Germans.
Indeed, Germany, Spain, France and Italy all out-perform us when it comes to having a greater awareness of recycling initiatives, which is the root of the problem. Greater awareness leads to a greater level of recycling, so we still have a long way to go.
Within the UK, it was the Welsh who performed the worst, with 19% of people admitting that they had never recycled any of their technology products. This was followed closely by people living in the north of England.
There was also confusion between standard recycling and the recycling of electronic products. In the north east of England, almost three quarters of people claim to do what they can to recycle, but less than 1% recycle their electronic products. There is also little knowledge across the country of exactly what the WEEE initiative is, which all paints a rather depressing picture of recycling in the UK.
Leave a Reply