The past decade has seen a worrying rise in rogue IT traders offering allegedly safe recycling services. This has probably been further fuelled by the current downturn in the economy. Many of these rogue operators are unlicensed, inexperienced and relying on illegal export, to offer heavily discounted prices. Whilst the reduced prices are tempting, much of the electrical equipment passing through these sites has been found to end up illegally in third world countries as waste, along with personal records and sensitive data.

In order to tackle the situation head on, the industry has developed a new PAS 141 certification . This quality standard will mark companies out as secure re-processors that can be trusted to refurbish and recycle electrical and electronic equipment responsibly.

WasteCare Group is proud to be the first company in the UK to be awarded with the PAS 141 certification. The company has been working towards this new certification for the past 2 years. WasteCare has now met all the requirements of the certification, installing new production processes including barcode tracking, functionality testing and electrical safety testing.

WasteCare also operate two refurbishment services based on this certification; AssetCare for used IT equipment and EeeCare for household appliances. These two services set an example for the rest of the industry and hopefully help flush out the disreputable traders.