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Story URL: http://hardware.silicon.com/desktops/0,39024645,39155219,00.htm

Eircom trumpets PC recycling success
Goes ahead with hardware refresh as law awaits approval in UK

By Sylvia Carr

Published: Wednesday 21 December 2005

Eircom has completed a hardware recycling effort while in the UK legislation mandating such actions, the WEEE Directive, is not yet law.

The Irish telco said that as of October it had recycled 2,500 desktop PCs.

Eircom IT director Gerry Quinn said in a statement: "Even though the WEEE Directive was only effective [in Ireland] from the 13 August 2005, we adopted its requirements in relation to the disposal and recycling of the desktops."

The company makes it policy to adopt best practices in several areas, especially those related to corporate social responsibility, he added.

The PC recycling was part of a hardware refresh across the company managed by EDS. EDS worked with the recycler, Indaver-Rehab Recycle, to take the equipment apart and recycle the component parts. This meant 95 per cent of the hardware was recycled and only five per cent ended up in landfill, according to EDS country manager Paschal Naylor.

In the UK, the WEEE Directive, which mandates organisations dispose of electrical equipment such as computers in a responsible fashion, was originally scheduled to go into effect in August, then in June 2006, but recently the Department of Trade and Industry announced it will be delayed yet again. The government is still working with businesses and recyclers to fine tune the implementation process.

The European Commission said in July it will take legal action against the UK and a number of other EU countries that have yet to implement the law.

In a poll of silicon.com's CIO Jury earlier this year, IT bosses agreed the WEEE Directive would have little impact on IT departments. Most said they already dispose of equipment in a responsible manner and one IT chief noted that complying with the directive gave him an opportunity to review existing processes and as a result save money.