Each issue, The Lighting Industry Federation (LIF) will tackle subjects relevant to specifiers within the lighting industry. This issue, Ernest Magog, Hon FCIBSE, asks that we make a note in our 2006 diaries to visit www.lumicom.co.uk...
Recycle your weee for a sutainable future
He is a stark illustration of the amount of waste we are currently consuming. Composed entirely of the sort of WEEE we use and discard, its teeth have been made from computer mice, the spine is formed from an old washing machine and the neck is composed of vacuum cleaner tubes.
Householders and businesses in the UK throw away at least one million tonnes of WEEE every year and 90% of this ends up as landfill. As a result, the UK is rapidly running out of landfill sites. Everyone needs to realise the huge environmental damage our current consumption of WEEE causes and do something about it. In the case of lighting equipment, manufacturers have established a WEEE compliance scheme to be managed by a not for profit company called Lumicom Ltd. If you want to help reduce the environmental damage WEEE causes, remember the RSA WEEE Man and what he represents. Then, remember the name 'Lumicom' and advise clients that:
(a) From January next year, they should contact Lumicom if they want to dispose of obsolete fittings;
(b) Lumicom will help them find a logistics company that can collect from the premises and deliver the lighting fittings to an accredited transfer station and thence to an authorised treatment plant;
(c) Clients should allow for the cost of stripping out luminaires in any business premises that are to be totally refurbished or demolished, and for the cost of hiring a container, logistics and treatment, should the producer prove not to be responsible;
(d) The manufacturer, whose discharge lamp fitting has been specified, is registered with Lumicom and has a valid certificate of compliance.
Post 2005, lighting equipment supplied by producers, who have registered with Lumicom, will have had the disposal cost included in the price. That means that the disposal at end of life has been prepaid and that both you and your client are playing your part in an effective system of waste management and helping to stem the fastest growing waste stream in the European Union.
The amount of WEEE in the EU is growing at up to 8% per year and the content of hazardous components in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EEE) is of major concern. As a result, the European Union has introduced a WEEE Directive, which, all being well, will be transposed into UK law by August 2005 and become fully effective in January 2006. It will underpin the work that Lumicom is doing to implement an effective system of waste management.
Remember the RSA WEEE Man - remember Lumicom Ltd.
This article is one of a series sponsored by the Lighting Industry Federation, the voice of authority on lighting. If you wish to know more about what the LIF can do for your practice, visit: www.lif.co.uk/affiliate
The RSA WEEE Man is an imposing seven metre high, human figure composed of three tonnes of WEEE. This represents the total amount of electronic waste that an average person in the UK is likely to consume in their lifetime. If you are visiting Cornwall this summer, you can see the RSA WEEE Man displayed at the Eden Project.