§ Norman BakerTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what(a) guidance and (b) advice is provided to Government Departments regarding the disposal of (i) printer cartridges and (ii) mobile phones; [85851]
(2) what support her Department (a) provides and (b) plans to provide to (i) local authorities and (ii) charitable organisations regarding the recycling and reuse of (A) mobile phones and (B) printer cartridges; [85853]
(3) what the total (a) volume and (b) number of printer cartridges (i) purchased and (ii) disposed of in the UK was in each year since 1990. [85855]
934W
§ Mr. Meacher[holding answer 11 December 2002]: There are around 90 million mobile phones in use and being stored the UK, and around 15 million of these are replaced every year. The majority of these are set to be reused or recycled through schemes such as FoneBack to which the main mobile phone companies are members. A number of phones are also being refurbished and sold to eastern Europe, Asia and Africa where there is a strong second hand market. In addition to this, the recently finalized text of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive sets a 75 per cent. target for the recovery and 65 per cent. target for the recycling of separately collected mobile phones.
The average office printer uses around a dozen printer cartridges a year, while a home printer uses around five. There are currently a number of businesses and charities that will collect printer cartridges when they are disposed of and send them for re-manufacturing. The text of the WEEE Directive encourages the design of equipment for recycling in general, and prioritises the re-use, recycling and recovery of WEEE so as to reduce the disposal of waste. Under the Directive producers of electrical and electronic goods will be responsible for the recovery, treatment and environmentally sound disposal of their equipment.
The Directive does not cover consumables such as printer cartridges when they are discarded separately. Devices are sometimes inserted into such consumables to prevent their reuse. The Department is therefore looking at effective measures to reduce this.
Guidance and advice will be developed and provided to Government Departments, local authorities and charitable organisations on the disposal, recycling and reuse of mobile phones and printer cartridges as part of the implementation of the WEEE Directive.