New legislation has been passed through the European Parliament which will see the increased recycling of e-waste.

As the result of a vote made last week, member states of the EU will have to increase and regulate their collection of e-waste to what amounts to 85 per cent of all e-waste generated.

The updated Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment or (WEEE) directive will be put in place later this year and member states will have 18 months to put the rules into practice.

The benefits of this to both the environment and manufacturers would be that less e-waste would take up less landfill around the world.

Increasing the said recovery of valuable raw materials such as plastics, electrical elements and metals could prove more cost-effective in the long term by creating ‘eco-efficient and sustainable business’ whereby the ‘mining of old computers’ and other electrical goods would be much cheaper and economical than mining the raw materials from source, using only a fraction of the energy if done correctly.

Companies already benefitting from the use of recycled products include Apple, Nissan, and Ford which have been using recycled plastics and metals in electrical items and cars.