WEEE recycling: what the rules say, and who collects electrical waste from a business
WEEE is waste electrical and electronic equipment: anything with a plug, a battery or a circuit board that has reached the end of its life. In the UK it has to be kept out of general waste and passed to a registered carrier and an approved treatment facility, and because of the metals inside, much of it is worth collecting rather than paying to dump.
WEEE: key facts
| What WEEE is | Waste electrical and electronic equipment: anything that needs a current or a battery to work, once it is discarded |
|---|---|
| The rules | The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2013, which put the cost of collection and treatment on the producers who put equipment on the market |
| The six categories since 2019 | Temperature exchange equipment, screens, lamps, large equipment, small equipment, and small IT and telecoms |
| Can it go in the general bin | No. It must be collected separately and treated at an approved facility |
| Hazardous items | Fridges and freezers, fluorescent and other lamps, old televisions and monitors, and anything with a battery are classed as hazardous and need a consignment note |
| Worldwide | 62 million tonnes of electronic waste were produced in 2022 and 22.3 per cent of it was documented as collected and recycled, according to the Global E waste Monitor 2024 |
What counts as WEEE
Almost anything electrical that a business throws away: computers, monitors, printers, phones, servers and cabling; fridges, freezers, air conditioning units and vending machines; lighting, including fluorescent tubes and LED fittings; power tools, kitchen appliances, medical and monitoring devices; and the batteries that come with them. The regulations sort it into six categories, and the category decides how it is counted and what the treatment facility has to do with it. Fridges, lamps and screens carry hazardous components, from refrigerant gases to mercury to leaded glass, which is why they are handled separately from a pallet of old keyboards.
Whose job it is
The regulations put the bill on producers, meaning the manufacturers and importers who put equipment on the UK market. They join a producer compliance scheme and fund the collection and treatment of an agreed share of what comes back. Retailers and distributors have to take back old equipment when they sell new, either in store or through the Distributor Takeback Scheme that funds council collection points. For a business disposing of its own equipment, the practical duty is the ordinary duty of care: hand it only to someone registered to carry it, make sure it ends up at an approved authorised treatment facility, and keep the paperwork.
Business WEEE comes in two kinds. Equipment you bought new after 13 August 2005 is the producer's responsibility at end of life, and many manufacturers and their compliance schemes will take it back; ask the supplier before you pay anyone. Older equipment, or equipment replaced like for like, is yours to dispose of, which in practice means a collection by a WEEE recycler, often free for IT and larger loads because the metals and working parts cover the cost.
How a collection works
- List what you have. Count the items by type: IT, screens, white goods, lamps, small appliances. Collectors quote on volume and category.
- Check the collector. They need a waste carrier registration, and the site they take it to needs an environmental permit as an approved authorised treatment facility. Both are on the public registers linked below.
- Deal with data first. Anything that has held information, from laptops to photocopiers to phones, needs its storage wiped or destroyed, with a certificate, before or as part of the collection. UK GDPR does not stop applying because the machine is old.
- Get the paperwork. A waste transfer note for ordinary WEEE, a hazardous waste consignment note for fridges, lamps, screens and batteries. Keep transfer notes for two years and consignment notes for three.
- Ask what it is worth. Servers, networking kit, cable and large volumes of IT have resale or metal value. A collector who charges for everything is not your only option.
What old equipment is worth
Electrical waste is where the idea of urban mining comes from: a tonne of circuit boards carries more gold than a tonne of ore, and a server room contains copper, aluminium and steel by the hundredweight. A recycler recovers copper from cable and transformers, aluminium from heat sinks and casings, steel from frames and chassis, and precious metals from boards, and sells them at the rates on our scrap metal prices page. Working equipment less than a few years old is worth more again through refurbishment and resale. The practical point for a business is that a free collection of IT equipment is normal, a payment for large or recent loads is possible, and a charge is justified mainly for fridges, screens and lamps, where treatment costs real money.
If you have equipment to clear, the quickest way to find out what it is worth is to post a listing and let recyclers and dealers come to you, or use the postcode search above to find the WEEE recyclers in your area. Batteries, which arrive with much WEEE, have their own rules and collectors, covered in our guide to battery recycling near you.
Frequently asked questions
What does WEEE stand for?
Waste electrical and electronic equipment: anything that needs an electric current or a battery to work, once its owner has finished with it, from a phone to a fridge to a server rack.
Can a business put electrical waste in the general waste bin?
No. WEEE has to be collected separately and treated at an approved authorised treatment facility. Fridges, lamps, screens and anything with a battery are classed as hazardous waste as well and need a consignment note.
Who pays for WEEE recycling?
Producers fund the system through compliance schemes, and retailers have to take back old equipment when they sell new. A business disposing of its own older equipment arranges and usually pays for its own collection, although IT and larger loads are often collected free because of their value.
Do I need to wipe data before recycling computers?
Yes. UK GDPR applies to the data on an old laptop, phone or photocopier until it is securely erased or the storage is destroyed. Use a collector that provides a data destruction certificate for each item.
Is old electrical equipment worth anything?
Often, yes. Circuit boards carry gold, silver and copper, cable and transformers carry copper, and casings carry aluminium and steel. Recent IT equipment has resale value too. Fridges, screens and lamps cost money to treat, which is why collectors charge for those.
Sources
- Regulations: waste electrical and electronic equipment, GOV.UK guidance
- The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2013
- Electrical waste: retailer and distributor responsibilities, GOV.UK
- The Global E waste Monitor 2024, United Nations Institute for Training and Research
- Waste duty of care code of practice, GOV.UK