Few people outside the Bush administration now doubt there’s such a thing as global warming, and most responsible business people will want to feel they are doing their bit to combat it.

A bit may not be enough, of course. In the UK, we produced a total of 156.9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2004, as well as other pollutants. The government is aiming to cut CO2 emissions from 1990 levels by 20% by 2010 and by 60% by 2050. And while road transport accounts for 21% of CO2 emissions, household, industry and small businesses also play their part.

Recycling and better handling of used business materials is clearly important. Paul Reeve, health, safety and environment adviser at the Electrical Contractors’ Association, says: ‘More than 85 million tonnes of solid waste goes to landfill each year, costing UK companies, on average, around 4% of turnover to process. So there are business reasons for minimising waste.’

There are excellent guidelines on recycling, which include the EU’s Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive, under which the UK is expected to recycle up to 315,700 tonnes of electrical and electronic waste per year.

Unfortunately, the lack of awareness of the consequences of the WEEE directive meant that, at the 11th hour, the UK government initially postponed the local implementation from October 2005 to January 2006. Now, there is no set date for implementation at all, with a consultation process ending this spring.

In the meantime, the problem that the directive set out to tackle shows no sign of abating. The production of electronic equipment usually includes strong raw materials such as lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls and polybrominated diphenyl ethers, all of which can have harmful effects on the environment. This chemical soup presents a big problem. Indeed, according to German industry association BITKOM, six million tonnes of electronic waste was generated in Europe in 1998 – 11% of which was IT equipment.

Landfills containing electronic equipment waste may be leaking these harmful chemicals into the surrounding soil and groundwater and if the products are incinerated the air becomes polluted as well. The plastic used to make printer, monitor and PC cases often contains cadmium, which can cause serious damage to the kidneys and liver, and if mixed with chlorine can turn into a highly carcinogenic compound.

Brussels is unhappy about the situation around the UK’s WEEE status. We are currently the only member state that hasn’t complied and may face legal action from the European Union.

The Institute of Directors argues that the WEEE process has been generally mishandled. ‘The government has a tendency to leave it too late when advising business on what is required by new environmental rules,’ says director general Miles Templeman. In February this year, the employers’ organisation released a survey of its members, mostly small to medium-sized companies, which found that 71% of company directors were uninformed about key environmental regulations, such as WEEE.

‘Businesses do not want to shy away from their environmental obligations. On the contrary, they are fully aware of the role they can play on major issues like climate change, but they do need help in meeting those obligations.’ Templeman adds that ‘clear, unambiguous advice’ is needed from government.

In September 2004, research by computer company Dell of 400 IT managers found nearly a third threw away old IT hardware instead of recycling it. Only 11% felt that eliminating their environmental liability was important.

Yet many businesses still say they want to sort out their waste issues and question what to do with outdated PCs, printers and so on. Some are choosing to pre-empt WEEE stipulations and explore what their options are now. One such route is refurbishment – sell the computers to a third party that will try and reconfigure their parts to service other customers.

Most IT suppliers will have some sort of scheme where some older equipment is kept for spares and repairs, others are reconditioned for use or sale to developing economies, and the remainder disposed of safely. Dell, for instance, has offered a recycling programme since September 2004 for all its businesses and consumers.

Then there are the companies that make a business of removing used equipment. Will Richardson, European sales manager at World Data Products, says: ‘Server, storage and network equipment may have a considerable residual value that companies don’t often think about recouping. And re-use is a major point in WEEE anyway, so why not evaluate this option?’

Another option is to donate used equipment to a good cause. Lincoln-based solicitors Andrew & Co has outsourced its IT to a third party with a stipulation that all its technology is replaced every three years to keep up to date. In April 2005, it refreshed around 50 machines, but ensured six were recycled into the voluntary sector and a further three were made available to staff provided they each donated £50 to charity.

Firms should be pragmatic – when WEEE comes into force, it will impact your business and your clients. ‘SMEs will be affected in terms of how and where they dispose of old equipment and the costs involved. Failure to address this could cost the business dearly, as it will become much more cumbersome and expensive to dispose of and/or recycle used PC monitors and other equipment,’ warns Garry Owen, head of product marketing at IT firm Fujitsu Siemens Computers UK.

There’s also a good chance that the price of PCs may rise as manufacturers attempt to pass on the price of collecting old parts. Technology analysts Gartner predicted in a 2005 research report that the changes could add up to £33 on to the price of a PC in Europe.

The WEEE directive will also impact on the buyers of electronic equipment. Buying new IT equipment means that the supplier is responsible for its disposal, but if a customer is replacing like-for-like, then that’s ‘old’ WEEE, for which the organisation is itself responsible. If you lease the equipment, rather than buying it, you do not become responsible; clearly contracts will need to be carefully scrutinised.

Is that a price worth paying? That’s ultimately for society to decide. Visitors to London’s South Bank last April may have seen the WEEE man (pictured). Made up of the amount of junked electronic goods that the average UK citizen throws away in their lifetime – the equivalent of 160 mobile phones – the WEEE man stood seven metres high and weighed three tonnes. Now’s the time to cut the WEEE man down to size.

Green regulations sprout

There are a number of green regulations that will apply later in the year or from early 2007.

The Restriction on the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances (RoHS) legislation, passed by the European Union in 2002, restricts the sale and development of new electrical or electronic equipment containing more than agreed levels of lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium and other pollutant chemicals.

In turn, the WEEE directive was implemented at a European level to try to cut the amount of waste electrical and electronic equipment being dumped in landfill sites. There are also other emerging environmental regulations such as the EU’s Energy-using Products and Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals directives.

To keep tabs of developments, go to the government Envirowise website on better waste management practices at www.envirowise.org.uk. The Electrical Contractors’ Association website at www.eca.co.uk also has information on WEEE and green building regulations.