We investigate: EU rules on recycling

If you can’t take it down to a centre, many local authorities will pick it up – but many charge for collection. The price depends on the quantity and sizes of the items you wish to be collected.

The producers
In accordance with the directive, many retailers and manufacturers of electronic goods have recycling schemes in place, although the details and costs vary.

Some retailers, such as PC World, offer a free take-back service, where they will accept your old computer equipment in the store when you buy a new one. Be careful to delete information and data stored on hard disks and flash memory beforehand though – see Delete hard disk files and folders forever for more.

Dell has an extensive recycling scheme for end-of-life computers and a re-use scheme for old PCs in working order as well as for monitors, printers and peripherals. You can have an old Dell-branded PC collected by the company free of charge.

In addition, if you buy a brand new Dell computer, you can have your old one collected and recycled at no extra cost, regardless of its manufacturer. You are limited to two boxes, each weighing no more than 31kg, and monitors and PC towers are considered separate items.

Comet, however, charges £8.95 to collect old kit whenever you purchase a new item and have it delivered. If you just need some waste collected without making a purchase, Comet charges £19.57 to pick it up.

Why make the effort?
Recycling is one way to reduce the amount of discarded technology being sent to landfill sites, but another is to re-use working equipment by donating it to friends, family or to a charity.

If a computer, gadget or mobile phone is in working order, there is no reason to destroy it just because it doesn’t have the latest features. Companies, such as Envirofone will even pay you for your old phone.

You can also help others who are less fortunate than yourself. Charities such as Computer Aid International redistribute old PCs to developing countries. Computer Aid has so far shipped 145,000 PCs to developing countries but first the waste is sifted to ensure only working PCs are sent.

The charity accepts PCs (at least Intel Pentium III-based or better) and peripherals, which are sent to schools and IT training centres in countries such as Ecuador.

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