Recycling

The Stone Group has been recycling computer equipment for our customers since 2000, and Stone now, uniquely, operate an in-house Authorised Treatment Facility for category 3 IT Waste (non-hazardous). This enables Stone to offer a single point of contact for purchasing and recycling.

The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE Directive)

Do you generate IT WEEE?

An Obligation to the Environment

Nothing goes to Landfill

We Collect and Recycle All Brands of Equipment

Stone Group uniquely operate an in-house Authorised Treatment Facility

For Qualifying Equipment there is No Charge

Rest assured, we use secure Data Erasure products on all Hard Drives

We offer a full Asset Management service

Help us maintain this as a Free Service

Stone Group – Your Best Practice IT Recycling Partners

Contact Us

Recycling Collection Request Form

What is the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE Directive)

The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE Directive) came into full force in 2007 to put a halt to the estimated 1 Million tonnes of electrical and electronic waste going to landfill sites every year in this country alone.

The WEEE Directive aims to both reduce the amount of electrical and electronic equipment being produced and to encourage everyone to recover, reuse and recycle it.

The directive also aims to improve the environmental performance of businesses that manufacture, supply, use, recycle and recover electrical and electronic equipment, and as an ISO 14001 accredited company we are fully committed to such improvement.

Do you generate IT WEEE?

Immediately IT equipment is decommissioned from its original use it becomes WEEE and is subject to the regulations that require amongst other things it is handled with a duty of care. 

Items containing hazardous materials (such as CRT monitors and Universal Power Supplies) are further subject to the Environment Agency’s Hazardous Waste Regulations and you must register your site with the Agency as a producer thereof unless your annual volume of such waste is less than 500kg.

Registration is easy and can be completed online for a nominal charge directly with the Environment Agency.

An Obligation to the Environment

In all organisations we now have a legally binding obligation to ensure best practice when disposing of redundant IT equipment. The EU Directive refers to this as BATRRT – The Best Available Treatment, Recovery and Recycling Techniques.

Stone Group is actively involved in comprehensively handling IT WEEE in accordance with EU directives and operates what many consider to be the best recycling scheme in the industry.

Unlike many companies operating in this arena with a scrap metal background we are able to identify European and global market niches that maximise the reuse of what within our markets may be considered redundant equipment.

Every computer, monitor, printer and even keyboard that can continue to serve its purpose offsets carbon emissions and raw material consumption that would otherwise be necessary in the production and transport of replacement items.

Nothing goes to Landfill

Whilst refurbishment to maintain the manufactured purpose of the product is the primary obligation under the WEEE directive, we also have a full waste management licence and our own authorised treatment facility (ATF) that is able to process all incoming waste that has truly reached the end of its life and must be broken down into segregated streams for return to the manufacturing process. This guarantees that none of your organisation’s redundant equipment will ever end up in a landfill site.

We Collect and Recycle All Brands of Equipment

Despite only being obliged in respect of our own equipment, we collect and process all brands of equipment into our recycling department and endeavour to offer clients a true “one stop shop” catering for all of their recycling needs.

Stone Group uniquely operate an in-house Authorised Treatment Facility

Our Opal Way facility at Stone Business Park is fully licensed by the Environment Agency as an Authorised Treatment Facility and we are further licensed as a Waste Carrier and Broker.

A considerable capital investment has been made to establish this facility in order that we may comply with all current and proposed legislation and offer customers a true “cradle to the grave” service that ensures compliant treatment of redundant equipment that we may have manufactured, supplied and serviced.

For those of you interested in seeing for yourselves this facility, tours are always available by prior arrangement either through your account manager or by contacting the recycling department directly.
We are unaware of any other IT manufacturer operating a similar facility in this country.

For Qualifying Equipment there is No Charge

We can offer you a comprehensive service in all aspects of the management of your waste stream, including;-

• Efficient Waste Collection bookings

• Free Collection from your sites (minimum volumes and access requirements apply)

• Secure transport to our premises

• Free Treatment and Processing through our Recycling department

• All Environment Agency compliance documentation

• Competitive pricing structure for non-qualifying equipment

Whilst developing our bespoke recycling offering, there were three requisites we considered top priority above all others;-

1. Data Security

2. Data Security

3. Data Security

We hope you get the message!

By now we’re all familiar with the horror stories of hard drives bought on eBay containing thousands of people’s banking or medical records, or even military secrets.

At Stone Group we take the security of potentially sensitive data extremely seriously, and by default all incoming hard drives are data wiped to the equivalent of HMG Infosec Standard 5 at the lower level.
All incoming data-bearing products are prioritised for data erasure, and our internal asset tracking database records every single drive erased.

Upon request, drives may enjoy overwriting to the higher level for a modest charge.  Where a drive is unsuitable for secure data erasure, for whatever reason, it is physically destroyed in-house.

We offer a full Asset Management service

For customers requiring it, we offer a full asset management reporting facility (including certificates of data destruction), again for a modest cost per item.

This will itemise every item received within our recycling facility, confirm it has been processed and treated in accordance with the appropriate legislation and report the make, model and serial number.

Help us maintain this as a Free Service

Clearly the capital investment in our recycling department and its ongoing overhead including our nationwide collection service is considerable.

Refurbishment of suitable equipment and placement into secondary markets affords us some opportunity to offset this overhead, and if this can be done effectively enough we can continue to maintain our service, reliably and responsibly collecting and processing your WEEE, without needing to charge.

Unfortunately much of the equipment we see returned has either been handled or stored poorly or has been cannibalised (hard drives, memory and power supplies appear to be favourite targets). This renders product uneconomical for refurbishment and consequently uneconomical for free collection and processing.

Where possible please endeavour to return equipment that is intact, working and handled accordingly and in turn we will endeavour to maintain the best WEEE compliance service in the industry without ever needing to charge for it.

Stone Group – Your Best Practice IT Recycling Partners

End of Life IT asset management needs specialist attention, and whilst many companies may claim to offer a service why take chances?

Stone Group offer total security through all stages of the process and are clear best practice operators providing an unrivalled service in managing your responsibilities under the WEEE and Hazardous Waste regulations.

Contact Us
To discuss any aspect of your obligations and commitments under the WEEE & Hazardous Waste regulations or our recycling service, please feel to contact us:

Andy Howell, Group Recycling Manager  andy.howell@stonegroup.co.uk

Scott Gardiner, Recycling Co-Ordinator   recycling@stonegroup.co.uk

Direct Line: 01785 285688

Recycling Collection Request Form

If you have an immediate requirement, our new recycling collection request form is now available online. Simply click here, complete and submit the form,  and we’ll be in touch to confirm a collection date!