What is WEEE?
WEEE stands for Waste Electrical and Electronics Equipment. It covers a wide range of products which rely on electricity to function. Government legislations requires that these items should be properly disposed of at the end of their useful life.
Duty of care
The duty of care is the obligations organisations and householders are expected to follow when dealing with electrical and electronic goods that are no longer needed. Read more.
Reuse & Recycling
Acorn specialises in the safe and environmentally conscious reuse & recycling of I.T equipment. Whether you are an individual, business or other organisation, we can take your redundant electronic goods, reusing what we can and safely recycling the rest.
Reuse
We assess all equipment we receive and make every effort to repair and refurbish items which might continue to serve a useful purpose. This is different to recycling, which involves breaking items into their component materials, and much more efficient.
Recycling
Sometimes an item cannot be reused, in which case it becomes WEEE. When something attains this status, government legislation requires that it should be disposed of safely and responsibly. Acorn will break the items up into their component materials (metals, plastics, glass etc) and send them off to be recycled.
The Process
The diagram below shows the process we go through when we handle the equipment given to us.
Incoming goods are given a unique identifier called an ACR number. This allows us to track items as they pass through the system.
All hard drives are removed and labelled according to the corresponding ACR number. They are then sent through a process of secure wiping (without viewing) which results in the complete destruction of all data.
Items are individually assesed for their re-use potential. Various factors are taken into consideration including age, condition and obsolescence.
Pass (reuse)
Anything which can be reused is passed to our technicians who perform any required maintenance and cleaning of the item. Comprehensive testing is carried out and a detailed checklist is filled in to ensure the items are reliable and in good working order.
When items are considered fit for reuse they are either donated to community organisations, used internally, or sold at a low cost to low-income families and individuals.
Fail (recycle)
When it is not possible to reuse an item it is processed by our technicians. The items are dismantled into various reusable parts and any hazardous substances are isolated and handled responsibly.
The remaining materials are then sent to professional recycling firms to be processed for remanufacture. Nothing goes to landfill.
