One in five UK small businesses claim to have no idea if they must comply with the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive.
Over 100 Federation of Small Business members were questioned.
“It is clear that although a number of business owners have heard of the WEEE directive, there is still work to be done in educating businesses about IT equipment disposal responsibilities,” said John Holbrow, FSB Environment Chairman.
The survey found some respondents admitting to storing old IT equipment indefinitely and even burning it, while 39.8 per cent said they recycled through a third party organisation.
Other findings included:
• SMEs are more likely to deploy power management software (29.7 per cent)
than they are to print on both sides of a piece of paper (14.4 per cent) – a
surprising statistic which shows that some businesses may still be overlooking
some very simple green IT measures;
• More than half of all SMEs (56.6 per cent) admit to not purchasing and
deploying energy-friendly IT products due to insufficient knowledge; and
• Although 58 per cent of respondents cited energy efficiency as a criterion
when purchasing new IT equipment, only 4.2 per cent considered it the most
important factor when making a purchasing decision. The majority of respondents
(36 per cent) cited compatibility with IT equipment as their most important
criterion.
The survey was conducted by Dell recycling.
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