Reclaimed gold wiring medal goes to...

...Germany.

Where as the UK has received the wooden spoon and title of Worst WEEE offender ever. Yes, it sounds more like a comment from The Simpson's eponymous character, Comic Book Guy. The proclamation comes from a Dell survey of 5,000 people in across five European countries: France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK.

I'm also intrigued as to how well informed NMInet members are as you'll all be aware of the WEEE directives. A three question survey can be found here. Please do take the 40 seconds needed to complete it.

According to the Dell Survey's results, the findings reveal interesting gaps when it comes to electronics recycling depending on gender, age and nationality, with Germans proving the savviest (four in five regularly recycle electronics) compared to the more complacent British public (only one in two).

The survey cites consumer confusion around the recycling options available for old electronics as the main culprit in the UK. I've been unable to find survey breakdowns for German or any figures for France, Spain or Italy. If anyone finds them please let me know.

The EU wide WEEE directive has now been in force for a little over two years and it's clear that the German media and government, in particular, have ensured that the population is informed about it. Whereas, the UK; as a population, they don't know about it or don't like it, as highlighted in a recent article in the Register:

"An independent IT retailer group has slammed the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform and accused it of “ignorance” over what the outfit sees as discrimination against small shop owners within the WEEE legislation."

But, that the British population doesn't know is probably not surprising. WRAP runs a much used website which searches for recycling schemes in a given UK area. The only electrical waste that it looks for is batteries.