Why is sWEEE now included in the Workplace Recycling Law?

This requirement has been put in place to ensure that small waste electricals from workplaces are not disposed of with general (black bag) waste and are instead kept separate from other waste so that they can be recycled.

75% of the materials in waste electricals can be recycled. If waste electricals go to landfill or incineration, valuable and often finite resources such as such as gold, copper, aluminium and steel are lost forever. Furthermore, using recycled materials from waste electricals to create new products reduces carbon emissions and reduces our reliance on the extraction of virgin raw materials and the associated environmental damage and biodiversity loss this can cause.

In addition, many small electrical items contain lithium-ion batteries. When placed in the general (black bag) waste stream, they are often subject to compaction during the collection process which is a known cause of waste fires which are both environmentally and economically damaging.