WEEE Compliance

Collection and Recycling Arrangements in the United Kingdom

Minicom equipment is sold in the United Kingdom by distributors. The distributor imports the equipment into the United Kingdom. Thus the distributor has the legal responsibility to:

• Register as the WEEE producer in the United Kingdom
• Finance arrangements for collection and recycling of WEEE arising from Minicom equipment that the distributor sells in the United Kingdom

Under the UK Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations, for equipment that you buy from a Minicom distributor after August 2005, the distributor is required to provide arrangements for the collection, treatment, recycling and recovery of WEEE that your new purchase replaces, on a one-for-one, like-for-like basis. The old equipment that your new purchase from the distributor replaces is referred to as Historic WEEE.

Under the UK WEEE Regulations, the distributor is also required to provide arrangements for the collection, treatment, recycling and recovery of any new electrical and electronic equipment that you buy from them after August 2005, when that new equipment eventually becomes waste. This is referred to as New WEEE.

The distributor is required to provide these arrangements starting from 1 July 2007. Minicom has decided to provide WEEE collection and recycling on behalf of its distributors in the United Kingdom.

Minicom products are very competitively priced. Any new increase in operating costs for manufacturers such as Minicom is normally reflected in a price increase in the product. However, instead of increasing the prices of our products, Minicom has decided to share these new environmental costs directly with our customers. We believe in being transparent with you on any new environmental costs that our products need to address.

Our approach to sharing these new environmental costs is:

• Minicom pays for the costs of treatment, recycling and recovery of the WEEE to meet the targets set by the WEEE Regulations;
• Minicom pays for the costs of data management and reporting to the Environment Agency to demonstrate compliance with all administrative requirements of the WEEE Regulations;
• you pay for transportation of your WEEE to Minicom's appointed recycler in the UK.

Minicom has established a recycling contract with the European Advanced Recycling Network (EARN) and will cover any costs of treatment, recycling and recovery of the equipment on arrival at the EARN facility in the UK. All New WEEE that arises from the purchase of Minicom products is classed as non-hazardous waste.

It is your responsibility to arrange and pay for costs of collection and transportation to EARN. In order to meet UK Duty of Care Regulations for waste disposal, you should use one of the following carriers (which hold a valid Waste Carriers licence):

For larger quantities of waste, you may want to contact the recycler directly to arrange and pay for alternative collection arrangements. The Minicom recycler in the United Kingdom is:

To comply with the UK Duty of Care Regulations the transport of your waste to the recycler must be accompanied by suitable documentation. You must also keep a signed copy of this documentation for two years.

In order to meet this requirement and to enable EARN to identify Minicom equipment upon arrival at the recycler's address, please download the Recycling Label for British Customers. Complete the label with your company details and attach it to a suitable box for transport to EARN.

  Recycling Label for British Customers

WEEE Reporting Recycling Data for Minicom Equipment in the United Kingdom

Under Section 27 of of the WEEE Regulations, Minicom distributors must provide annual information on the quantities and categories of electrical and electronic equipment put on the market, reused, recycled and recovered within the UK.

The first WEEE recycling report will cover the period July 2007 to December 2007. EARN will prepare the recycling data report for Minicom distributors. Information in the EARN recycling data report will be summarised on the Minicom website when it becomes available.