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Recycled robo-cop takes aim at tech industry waste
20 foot robot highlights eco-issues ahead of 2006 WEEE directive

By Jo Best

Published: Thursday 28 April 2005

The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) has deployed a 20 foot tall robot next to City Hall on London's South Bank, in an attempt to encourage the tech industry to take its environmental responsibility more seriously.

The WEEE man, pictured below, was created by the RSA and Canon and is made from a variety of defunct computer and electrical equipment. It weighs seven tonnes and represents the average amount of technology used by a single person in a lifetime - 90 per cent of which will end up in a landfill or be incinerated, instead of being reused or recycled.

The robot's name is derived from the on-again, off-again recycling directive. The WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) directive came into force in the European Union in 2003 but is due to be introduced in the UK in 2006.

Once the directive becomes law, UK businesses will then be expected to ensure their out-of-date tech equipment is disposed of in a responsible fashion - either by being used in developing countries or by being broken down and recycled.

WEEE man will remain standing on the South Bank for a month.

Photo: Jo Best