Recent news has suggested that fly-tipping is a problem in the city, so can IT recycling in Manchester help tackle the issue?
The problem
In the financial year 2016/2017, there were 28,508 reported tipping incidents in Manchester and this included IT waste. Manchester is the third highest area in the country in terms of fly-tipping, with only Enfield and Haringey boroughs having more tipping incidents.
This is despite the fact that there are laws against fly-tipping. An individual faces fines of up to £400, but for businesses, penalties can be considerably more severe. In 2016, a Birmingham business was fined £25,500 by the courts, the highest fine ever for fly-tipping, yet the problem persists.
In Stockport, the council has removed recycling bins from car parks. These were intended for private individuals to get rid of items including paper, cans and bottles. The council, however, found that some businesses were unlawfully using the bins to get rid of trade waste, and the bins themselves were ‘binned’. Consequently, people arrived at their normal recycling car park to find no bins. Instead of taking the items elsewhere for disposal, many of them simply left their rubbish in the car park.
In another local incident reported in May, someone unloaded about two tonnes of bricks in a Manchester street before driving away.
Why IT equipment should not be thrown away
When a business purchases new IT equipment, or has non-working IT equipment, they may be tempted to just throw away the old equipment. They could put it into the bin with their other rubbish, in which case it will end up in a landfill. Or, if they are completely uncaring about the environment, they may be tempted to simply fly-tip the equipment in an isolated spot in the hope that no one will notice it.
IT equipment should not be thrown away because it can be recycled. If equipment is working or can be repaired, there are charities that send older, but fully working systems to developing countries where they can be useful.
A computer has lots of metal and other materials that can be extracted and recycled as raw materials. Some components of a non-working system may still be useful too, and computer technicians can use them to replace parts in broken equipment.
The great benefit of IT recycling in Manchester is that it is so easy. Contact an IT recycling Manchester business and they will collect any equipment from your premises. You can simply leave it to them to recycle the IT equipment in an environmentally friendly way.
Combating fly tipping
IT recycling in Manchester cannot solve the fly-tipping problem on its own, but it can help, and so can the ethos behind it. If every company used IT recycling business and individuals took their old computer equipment to their local council recycling service, then no IT equipment would be fly-tipped or buried in landfill sites
If recycling becomes a habit, there is no need for fly-tipping and responsible disposal becomes second nature.
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