How much business IT does the UK's e-waste system see come back?
The Environment Agency's WEEE statistics, 2008 to 2025, for equipment designed only for business use: servers, storage, enterprise networking and similar. Every figure is traced to a cell in the published spreadsheets.
Updated 19 September 2026 · Environment Agency WEEE statistics, Open Government Licence · method and dataset below
What these figures can and cannot tell you
Equipment that is resold, refurbished or exported for reuse before it becomes waste is not WEEE, so it never appears in these figures. The WEEE statistics count only equipment that has been discarded.
Source: The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2013 (SI 2013/3113), regulation 2(1)
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Under regulation 2 of the WEEE Regulations 2013, waste from equipment likely to be used by both households and businesses is classed as household WEEE. GOV.UK guidance tells producers to report dual-use products as household (B2C), gives laptops as an example of a product used by both, and says business software on a laptop, tablet or PC does not make it B2B unless the hardware only works with that software. Laptops, tablets and PCs that are not designed solely for business use are therefore counted as household WEEE even when a business discards them. The non-household figures cover equipment designed only for business use, such as commercial data servers and storage systems.
Source: The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2013 (SI 2013/3113), regulation 2(1)
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So this study measures what the official system records for business-only equipment. It makes no claim about where the rest goes.
What the official records show
- In 2025, 49,486 tonnes of business-only IT and telecoms equipment were placed on the UK market and 802 tonnes were recorded collected through producer compliance schemes: 1.6% (1.5% against the three-year average the collection rules use).
- Across 2008–2025, 45,238 tonnes were recorded collected against 1,462,325 tonnes placed on the market (3.1%). The yearly figure ranged from 0.93% to 5.1%.
- IT is not an outlier: across all 14 categories of business-only equipment the 2025 figure was 2.5%.
- Business IT placed on the market fell from 134,245 tonnes in 2008 to 49,486 tonnes in 2025. The statistics don’t say why; reclassification of dual-use equipment as household may be part of it.
- Reuse is almost invisible in the official system: treatment facilities reported 0.131 tonnes of business-only IT “for reuse” in 2025. Reuse that happens before equipment becomes waste is not recorded here at all.
Placed on the market vs recorded collected
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Source: Environment Agency WEEE statistics (GOV.UK), Open Government Licence v3.0.
| Year | Placed on market (t) | Collected (t) | Collected / placed | vs 3-year average | Upper bound incl. non-obligated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 49,486 | 802 | 1.6% | 1.5% | 19.6% |
| 2024 | 49,414 | 977 | 2.0% | 1.7% | 21.6% |
| 2023 | 53,959 | 762 | 1.4% | 1.2% | 21.3% |
| 2022 | 59,053 | 756 | 1.3% | 1.1% | 23.7% |
| 2021 | 57,441 | 754 | 1.3% | 1.1% | 21.3% |
| 2020 | 69,336 | 647 | 0.93% | 0.92% | 19.3% |
| 2019 | 72,883 | 1,906 | 2.6% | 2.7% | 28.7% |
| 2018 | 71,224 | 918 | 1.3% | 1.3% | 33.8% |
| 2017 | 67,446 | 913 | 1.4% | 1.1% | 37.6% |
| 2016 | 75,519 | 1,153 | 1.5% | 1.3% | 42.2% |
| 2015 | 75,270 | 2,471 | 3.3% | 2.5% | 50.9% |
| 2014 | 96,780 | 3,055 | 3.2% | 3.0% | 43.0% |
| 2013 | 100,904 | 4,214 | 4.2% | 4.0% | 45.0% |
| 2012 | 104,477 | 4,202 | 4.0% | 3.9% | 37.3% |
| 2011 | 102,913 | 4,546 | 4.4% | 3.8% | 31.3% |
| 2010 | 108,187 | 5,216 | 4.8% | — | 28.4% |
| 2009 | 113,790 | 5,771 | 5.1% | — | — |
| 2008 | 134,245 | 6,173 | 4.6% | — | — |
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Business-only equipment of every kind, 2025
| WEEE category | Collected / placed, 2025 | vs 3-year average | 2021–2025 combined |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12. Cooling Appliances Containing Refrigerants | 7.1% | 7.3% | 6.7% |
| 5. Lighting Equipment | 5.4% | 4.3% | 6.4% |
| 10. Automatic Dispensers | 3.1% | 2.0% | 2.3% |
| 1. Large Household Appliances | 2.5% | 4.6% | 2.1% |
| 8. Medical Devices | 1.9% | 1.6% | 1.7% |
| 3. IT and Telcomms Equipment | 1.6% | 1.5% | 1.5% |
| 6. Electrical and Electronic Tools | 0.62% | 0.53% | 0.62% |
| 13. Gas Discharge Lamps and LED Light Sources | 0.45% | 0.31% | 0.09% |
| 2. Small Household Appliances | 0.43% | 0.30% | 0.32% |
| 9. Monitoring and Control Instruments | 0.12% | 0.19% | 0.22% |
| 11. Display Equipment | 0.08% | 0.07% | 0.16% |
| 4. Consumer Equipment | 0.03% | 0.02% | 0.08% |
| 7. Toys Leisure and Sports | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.04% |
| 14. Photovoltaic Panels | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.07% |
| All categories (published total) | 2.5% | 2.7% | 2.7% |
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Central government's own ICT waste
| Year | ICT waste (t) | Reused | Recycled |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-21 | 1,722 | 51% | 41% |
| 2021-22 | 2,322 | 54% | 39% |
| 2022-23 | 1,800 | 41% | 50% |
| 2023-24 | 1,491 | 34% | 63% |
| 2024-25 | 955 | 37% | 62% |
| table | NaN | —% | —% |
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How the figures were built
How these figures were produced
- Source: Environment Agency, "Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) in the UK" (GOV.UK): EEE placed on the market, WEEE collected, WEEE received at approved treatment facilities, WEEE received by approved exporters and non-obligated WEEE, current and archived editions.
- Series: WEEE category 3 (IT and telecommunications equipment), non-household (business-only), full calendar years 2008–2025. 2007 covers July–December only and is excluded.
- Ratios: collected divided by placed on the market in the same year, and against the average of the three preceding years (the basis used for collection targets).
- Upper bound: non-obligated WEEE received outside the producer schemes is not split between household and business, so adding all of it gives a ceiling on the scheme-reported basis, not an estimate. (Treatment facilities’ own receipts of business IT exceed the scheme-reported figure in most years, so this is not an absolute ceiling.)
- Terminology: the ratio here is not the statutory WEEE collection rate, which covers all WEEE together.
- Checks: every value is tied to its spreadsheet, sheet and cell. A second, independent parser re-read 5,999 values (5,999 matched). Known template errors in the source (mislabelled year headers) were detected and resolved, and are listed in the dataset.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: Environment Agency, "Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) in the UK", GOV.UK. This analysis is free to reuse under CC BY 4.0, crediting “Servnet UK Business E-Waste Study 2026”. Downloads: CSV · JSON.
Questions
How much e-waste does the UK produce?
This study looks at the official WEEE statistics for business-only equipment. In 2025, 49,486 tonnes of business-only IT and telecoms equipment were placed on the UK market, and 802 tonnes were recorded collected through producer compliance schemes. Across all 14 categories of business equipment the collection figure was 2.5% of what was placed on the market.
Does this mean most business IT is dumped?
No. Equipment that is resold, refurbished or exported for reuse before it becomes waste is not WEEE, so it never appears in these figures. The WEEE statistics count only equipment that has been discarded. Much business IT is resold, refurbished, leased back or exported for reuse, and that activity is outside these statistics. The study measures what the official system records, not where the rest goes.
Why are business laptops not in these figures?
Under regulation 2 of the WEEE Regulations 2013, waste from equipment likely to be used by both households and businesses is classed as household WEEE. GOV.UK guidance tells producers to report dual-use products as household (B2C), gives laptops as an example of a product used by both, and says business software on a laptop, tablet or PC does not make it B2B unless the hardware only works with that software. Laptops, tablets and PCs that are not designed solely for business use are therefore counted as household WEEE even when a business discards them. The non-household figures cover equipment designed only for business use, such as commercial data servers and storage systems.
What is the most that could be business IT?
The Environment Agency also records "non-obligated" WEEE received by treatment facilities and approved exporters outside the producer schemes, not split by household or business. Adding all of it to the business figure gives a ceiling, on the scheme-reported basis, of 19.6% for 2025. It is an upper bound, not an estimate.
Where does the data come from?
Environment Agency, "Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) in the UK", published on GOV.UK under the Open Government Licence. Every figure in this study is traced to a cell in the published spreadsheets, and a second, independent parser re-read all 5,999 values.
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