Whether you love your mobile phone or not, each person in the UK gets through an average of 3.3 tonnes of electrical/electronic waste in their lifetime. Most of that – about two thirds – ends up in landfill, wasting precious metals and reusable components. With our fetish for electronic goods continuing unabated, the amount of WEEE (waste electrical and electronic equipment) is growing by about 5% every year.

A new project launching in Brighton on Monday is aiming to get all the gadgets out of landfill and into recycling centres. Recycle With Clarity is a two and a half week-long doorstep collection trial, run by Brighton-based Clarity Environmental. It is targeting 48,000 households and are hoping around 5,000 of those will leave out some of their redundant gadgets for collection between September 19 and October 6.

This waste will be picked up by Magpie Recycling and taken on to a company called SWEEEP for recycling. The result is that households are able to dispose of their WEEE in a responsible fashion, Magpie get to keep the scrap value of anything they pick up and SWEEEP strip out the raw materials and sell them on.

Clarity acts in an organisational capacity and pays for marketing and advertising.

So what’s in it for them? Vikkie Fitzgerald is the project manager for Recycle With Clarity. She says, “We’re just after the certificates to show the goods have been recycled.”

Clarity is a trading and compliance company, which means they ensure other businesses comply with the European directive on WEEE. The directive states that any manufacturer of electrical items must recycle the same amount as it produces. For example, a company that makes ten tonnes of televisions also has to recycle ten tonnes of televisions. They don’t have to be the exact same televisions, just the same weight.

Vikkie says it works in exactly the same way as carbon offsetting, except the WEEE directive isn’t in the least bit controversial since electrical items are tangible, as opposed to the ethereal nature of trading carbon dioxide. She says, “If a producer has sold ten tonnes of televisions but only has five tonnes of recycling on its books, the Environment Agency will come down on them really hard. Everyone’s books have to balance. It does work.”

Once Clarity has the certificates, they then sell them to electronic manufacturers, who in turn have proof they have seen to recycling in line with the WEEE directive.

It may sound convoluted, but it does seem to offer a rounded and workable solution, from providing recycling facilities on an individual level to ensuring manufacturers take responsibility for the goods they produce.

Recycle With Clarity is a UK-wide project, and currently the largest of its kind, but the focus on Brighton is particularly strong.

Vikkie says, “We’re paying more attention to the project here because this is where we’re based and we want to give something back to the city. We’re looking at refurbishing some goods and giving them to deprived areas or homeless rehousing projects. We’re not doing that elsewhere.”

* Check The Leader between September 19 and October 6 for details of doorstep collections in your area or contact Vikkie Fitzgerald on 01273 929212 or vikkie.fitzgerald@clarity.eu.com