WEEE Case Study

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WEEE Case Study University of Edinburgh

• George Reid Procurement
• Fleur Rothwell Energy Sustainability Office

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Our Objectives

• To make the purchasers and end users of equipment
  aware of the WEEE Directive and of our
  responsibilities and challenges
• To ensure that the suppliers who deliver to the
  University have registered with a scheme (e.g.
  Valpak) - only 30 done so to date
• To ensure that WEEE is disposed of at the lowest
  cost to the University whilst conforming to DoC /
  good practic

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Categories of WEEE

• Large and small household appliances
• IT and telecoms, mobiles
• Consumer equipment
• Lighting Equipment
• Electrical and Electronic Tools

• Toys, Leisure sports
• Medical Devices
• Monitoring and Control equipment
• Automatic Dispensers

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Key dates

• 1 April 07 date by which Compliance Schemes
  register members with the relevant Environmental
  Agencies
• 1 July 07 Producer financial obligations start
  (start of compliance period)
• 31 December 07 end of the compliance period

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Our Challenges

• Awareness of users/purchasers
• No common inventory of items under 25k
• Unauthorised / unregistered equipment
• Unauthorised disposal methods (skip, charities)
• Disposal costs (who? / when?)
• Quantity and variety of WEEE
• Details of compliance schemes geographical and
  space constraints

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Current Situation

• Policy for disposal of IT equipment
• Contracts in place
• Annual for IT (and other non-refrig WEEE)
• Approved supplier for refrigeration items
• Annual contract for lamps
• Route for mobile phones (with cartridges)
• Procurement initiatives
• Guidance (via website, procurement / waste
  networks)

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Current Situation

• IT equipment
• Annual spend of 10m on new IT equipment
• 57.9 tonnes disposed of (05-06) at cost of
  11,750
• Increasing year on year
• Lamps
• quote of 15p extra per new lamp since 1-Jul-07
• Refrigeration equipment
• 4.6 tonnes disposed of (05-06) at cost of approx
  2k
• Mobile phones
• Other, e.g. light fittings (no route previously),
  etc

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Procurement Supplier Conditions

• Minimum quantities for free uplift
• One site uplift or milk run
• Inevitable involvement of resellers (e.g. extra
  ) for collection of small items
• Storage segregation requirements
• Other logistical / security considerations?
• Different situation for historic / current

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Procurement IT agreements

• Interregional Desktop Agreement (PC)
• National Notebook Agreement (NNA)
• National Apple Agreement
• National Printer Agreement (NPG)
• National Server Agreement
• National Photocopier (MFD)

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Procurement Standardisation

• Select PC (mini tender within IRDA)
• Select Laptop (mini-tender within NNA)
• Select Printer (mini-tender January 08)
• Add relevant clauses and questionnaires on WEEE
  and ROHS eg (data collection) manufacturer
  (product marking)

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Initial Quick Wins for UoE

• Extend policy to include all WEEE
• Keep contracts for historic WEEE
• Add more WEEE guidance to various websites to
  catch the users at the various stages e.g.
  purchase, specify, dispose
• Ensure all ITTs have specific clauses relating to
  WEEE, ROHS
• Revist TCs with all suppliers not using IRDA,
  NNA, Apple, NPG
• Use Waste Coordinators Procurement groups more
  to distribute key info

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Other Solutions

• Design posters / stickers for key notice boards,
  restrooms etc
• Create wiki website for information / document
  management
• Give supplier 1-5 rating on environmental impact
  e.g. IT 1, travel 5 to enable choice
• Join the dots between purchase-use-dispose, clear
  information flow

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Other issues

• How will WEEE response by supplier be
  evaluated/scored?
• Should we use a common tool such as the
  Greenpeace Barometer?
• Should we deal with producers who are not part of
  a compliance scheme?
• What about resellers who charge for collection
  (e.g. small items)?

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Useful websites

• http//weee.procureweb.ac.uk/useful_links.html
• http//www.eaucwasteguide.org.uk/
• http//www.valpak.co.uk
• http//www.cupid.ac.uk