From 1 July 2007, the UK’s Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations will give members of the public the opportunity to return their waste electrical items to retailers for recycling. This new legislation seeks to address the 1.2million tonnes of electrical and electronic waste produced by households every year in the UK alone – that’s more than 150,000 double decker buses full of electrical and electronic rubbish each and every year.

Landfilling waste creates a number of environmental problems and this is particularly true of electronic wastes which may contain heavy metals and so-called ‘chemicals of concern’ such as brominated flame retardants. It is anticipated that within ten years there will be very little or no landfill left in the UK. At the same time the amount of WEEE produced in the UK is growing at a rate of 5% each year so something has to be done; simply discarding this waste to landfill is no longer an option.

As a retailer of various electrical and electronic items, Lloydspharmacy has a clear responsibility and a role to pay in implementing the WEEE regulations. We have joined a compliance scheme to meet our obligations as an importer and ‘producer’ of WEEE. In addition we have opted to join the Distributor

Takeback Scheme to manage waste which the public, including some of our customers, wish to dispose of. We won’t be able to take waste items back in our stores, but we have teamed up with over 200 other retailers to support the development of a recycling network which will be accessible to the majority of households.

If you have waste, including waste electrical and electronic items, which you wish to recycle, you can use the Recycle More website to find the closest recycling site for your waste: http://www.recycle-more.co.uk.

If you have a question or would simply like to know more about Lloydspharmacy and the environment, then please email us at: environment@lloydspharmacy.co.uk