Following three years of intensive research and a week of tense meetings between scientists and policymakers in South Korea, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a special report this week on the impact of global warming, calling it ‘the final call’ on the risks of rising global temperatures. The report states that ‘rapid and significant’ changes are necessary in four major global systems – land use, energy, cities and industry – if we’re to avoid inflicting irrevocable damage to our planet, and threatening our very existence.

In light of this, here at RELLTEK we’re keen to be offering our full support to the very first International E-waste Day, which takes place this week on the 13 October 2018.

The initiative is backed by The WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) Forum, a not-for-profit association of 36 WEEE producer responsibility organisations in Europe and across the globe.

International E-waste Day is an exciting initiative, with a serious message: to raise awareness of e-waste issues and the importance of proper e-waste disposal, collection and recycling. Which is what we’re all about!

Across the world, it’s estimated that 50 million tonnes of e-waste will be generated this year alone, but only 20% will be recycled. That means 40 million tonnes of unwanted personal devices, such as computers, smartphones, tablets and TVs – not to mention large white goods like washing machines and fridges – will either be burned, illegally traded or will make their way to landfill.

Here in the EU, we lead the world in e-waste recycling, but unfortunately we’re still not doing enough: even within Europe, only 35% of e-waste is officially reported as collected and recycled. And improper disposal of e-waste carries serious health and environmental consequences: the CPU in the computer you’re using right now contains many environmentally unfriendly chemicals such as lead, cadmium, beryllium, even mercury. Proper processing of these chemicals is essential to ensure that they don’t leach into the earth. Not to mention the huge loss to the economy as critical raw materials drop out of the supply chain. (That same computer we mentioned? It also contains gold, silver, platinum, nickel, tin, copper, aluminium… around 40 and 50 times richer than ores mined from the earth).

Nonetheless, e-waste remains a big issue for many consumers and businesses who are still not sure how to safely dispose of old computers, smartphones or other electronic devices. Added to which, the recent introduction of GDPR legislation means that every care has to be taken to make sure that customer information is properly erased before disposal.

That’s where we come in. At RELLTEK, we’re fully GDPR-compliant and licensed to collect, recycle and dispose of unwanted IT equipment and where possible, we’ll refurbish it to prevent it from going to landfill. We’ll even take 15 items of your old IT off your hands, free of charge.

So don’t be an e-waster. Show your support for International E-waste Day and give us a call! Or contact us here

Richard Ellis | RELLTEK