The WEEE directive, which entered into force as European law on 13th February 2003, will result in a major change in the treatment of electrical equipment at end-of-life. The numbers and range of product types and materials that will arise as a result has not been quantified.

The advent of free take back of old personal computers in Europe is likely to have a major effect on recycling rates

Having some idea of what will arise in the waste or recycling stream and when this will happen is of major importance -

	to manufacturers. To gauge the financial impact, to predict whether they will meet individual recycling targets, and to estimate whether sufficient throughput exists in the system.
	to recyclers. To plan for the rapid increase in supply of WEEE that will inevitably take place as the August 2005 deadline approaches. Significant amounts of recycled materials will become available - how will these be used?
	to governments. To avoid the fridge mountain fiasco caused by under-capacity of suitable recycling facilities in the UK. Also to determine whether UK industry is meeting its recovery targets.
	to local authorities. As the probable providers of the collection infrastructure/, they will need to know what types and how much consumer WEEE will arise and need to be collected and transported? What are the implications of collecting the target 4kg per person per year and what happens in the event of a surplus or shortfall.

400 million mobile phones were sold worldwide in 2002 An increasing proportion of sales will be to replace existing phones which will need to be recycled safely

ERA has recently completed a project for Johnson Matthey Precious Metals Division to determine the quantity of platinum group metals that will arise in the future from recycling end-of-life PCs and mobile phones. A mathematical model was generated which predicts future arisings based on past and future sales, equipment composition and end-of-life disposal trends. This type of approach could be used for any type of WEEE and materials that are recovered.

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