Electric.ie March April 2021

ELECTRIC.IE • The Magazine & Website for the Irish Electrical Industry • 33 Industry News Barry Dunne, Branch Manager at M.Kelliher Ballymount, “We have allocated a spacious and well- advertised outdoor area to the side of our warehouse for the storage of WEEE. This area is always well stocked with recycling cages for luminaires and recycling coffins for lamps. Our customers can park right beside it and deposit their WEEE simply and easily. Irish Lamps Recycling (ILR) collect our WEEE once a week and bring it to their plant in Athy, Co. Kildare for recycling, which enables us to keep our WEEE area nice and tidy. Not only are we doing our bit for the environment, but we definitely get more business as a result of providing this service to our customers”. “We provide a dedicated recycling drop off facility in our yard”, says John Clifford of Clifford Electrical in Sligo, “The area is very accessible and easy to use and we encourage our customers to drop off their used lamps and luminaires whenever they like. We also provide boxes at our Trade Counter for recycling lamps and batteries and we can provide boxes to our customers to use at their own premises if they prefer. When our customers are involved in a retrofitting project, we offer to collect the WEEE from site and bring it back to our recycling depot for them. Alternatively, on larger projects, we can provide empty pallets to site and arrange for ILR to go direct to site to collect the WEEE on our behalf. ILR collect WEEE from our premises on a regular basis and we find them very cooperative whenever we ask them to collect from site”. “It’s great to see that some of our members have fully embraced WEEE Recycling as a key part of their business”, says Ken, “and the AEWwould encourage all of our members to really focus on WEEE Recycling this year, particularly with their Electrical Contractor customers and with special emphasis on linear fluorescent tubes and CFLs”. “I would ask all AEW members to consider upgrading their WEEE Recycling facilities as soon as possible this year”, says Ken. “It’s difficult to achieve great WEEE Recycling results unless you have the proper facilities and equipment in place, so I would encourage AEW members to liaise with Irish Lamps Recycling (ILR) to procure the ideal mix of cages, coffins and boxes for their respective WEEE Recycling areas. AEW members should also be displaying WEEE Recycling posters at their Trade Counters and encouraging their customers by word of mouth to use their WEEE Recycling facilities as much as possible. If an AEW member needs more posters, they are welcome to call me on 085-2072761 or email me at admin@iebg.ie and I will dispatch some posters to them straight away. Finally, it’s worth reminding AEW members that WEEE Ireland will pay them €300 for each tonne of WEEE lamps collected by ILR and €30 for each tonne of WEEE luminaires, so there is a nice financial reward available there too”. The AEW is planning a WEEE Recycling Awards event in early 2022 in conjunction with WEEE Ireland and ILR, with the winners to be selected based on their WEEE Recycling results for the calendar year 2021. Further details about these awards will be communicated directly to all AEW members shortly. “I think that everyone involved in the lighting industry will agree that WEEE Recycling is not only an environmental obligation for all, but also of commercial benefit to those who embrace it”, says Ken, “and the AEW is delighted to play its part in helping WEEE Ireland to achieve its goals in 2021 and beyond” Ken Legros, AEW Administrator Irish Lamp Recycling Company A fluorescent tube recycle bin at an electrical wholesaler Wholesaler Recycle Area