The vast majority of small businesses are still unaware of the 2006 Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations, more than a year after they came into force.

A survey by environmental guidance website www.netregs.gov.uk [1] found that only 12% of small company owners could name the WEEE Regulations unprompted and just a third (36%) had heard of them once they were named.

"Small businesses generate 60% of all commercial waste in England and Wales so it's critical that all users of electrical equipment understand what WEEE means for them," said Richard Martin, NetRegs programme manager.

The WEEE Regulations were introduced in January 2007 to reduce the amount of electrical waste going to landfill and require producers of such material to take responsibility for the treatment, collection and recycling of any waste electronic equipment produced by them since August 2005.

For businesses, it means they may return their end-of-life electrical equipment to the producer and may no longer need to pay to send their electrical waste to landfill.