So, we had The Millenium Bug Ballyhoo.  And something called “1992″ about exporting to the EU. “Are You Ready For 1992?” ran the banners. What was due to change in 1992? Precisely nothing. And nothing did. But the government took it upon them to choose this pseudo-threat to chivvy manufacturers to consider export markets.

And now “The WEEE Directive”. The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive. Due to become law in February 2007.

Now, I’m not sneering at this particular initiative.. It’s high time that we stopped slinging circuit boards into landfill and messing up the soil with irremovable and very nasty heavy metals. It’s all the more galling to watch it being done badly and unethically, (but cheaply), whilst ethical operators such as ourselves comply with the guidelines, but lose out to the unscrupulous.  Hopefully this situation will end.  And about time, too…

What concerns me is the tendency of “solution providers” to hype the new EU inititive into something it isn’t, and an issue at which they can launch very expensive consultants. Overcomplication can be a revenue-generation tool:- “It’s very complex, and you need our help to avoid getting into trouble.” Right.

So, at the risk of over-simplification, here’s our overview. We’ve been handling electronic waste, namely used phone systems and old telephones, for around seven years now, and mix with some of the larger players in a small market, debating the issues and bemoaning the abuses, so, hopefully, we at least know “something”. And we’re Licensed Waste Carriers, hence can provide all the proof that old PABX and other phone systems have been correctly recycled, generating all the neccessary Enviroment Agency documentation.

The Idiot’s Guide To WEEE…

- Do You “Make Things”? Manufacturers need to plan to take back their old products at the end of their lives. Not an issue unless you are a manufacturer. Simply, don’t make things that you are not prepared to take back at the end of their lives. A large chunk of the WEEE Directive concerns itself with this.

- Electronic and Electrical Waste is Classes as “Hazardous Waste”:- No, it’s not the same as “glow in the dark” fuel rods from Sellafield:- you just need to pass it on to someone who will transport it for correct disposal, and is licensed to carry it. What is “Electrical and Electronic Waste”? The clue is in the name. Telephones, phone systems, cables, PC bases and monitors, “the fan next to Sarah’s desk that we used once a year and which broke”. Anything electrical or electronic…

- Your Company Needs To Be Registered As A Producer of Hazardous Waste:- Simple. Can be done on-line with The Environment Agency here.  This helps to keep the origin and final destintion of the waste all nicely traceable.  Any genuine waste carrier or processor should ask for your “Premises Code”, being your unique identifier, typically “ABC123″.

- A Licensed Waste Carrier Needs To Take It Away. Not men in Darth Vader masks, simply an organisation, registered with The Environment Agency that will produce a document, rather like an express courier’s shipping note, proving that the waste has gone to a correct “home” and not in a ditch down a pretty country lane. Known as a “Consignment Note”, this needs to have specific boxes completed showing your premises code, defining the type of waste, where it being sent, and the qualifications of the recipient to handle or process it.

I’m quite sure someone will come back and tell me that it isn’t this simple. Please feel free! Even “the authorities” seemed to be confused on some aspects.

But, on the other hand, men with shiny suits, laptops, and mercenary intent will make it very, very complex and expensive. Beware the myth-makers.

Oh, and I better end with an inevitible disclaimer for an increasingly litigious society. You need to check all the above details with the relevant authorities. None of the above should be taken as legally or factually correct… we’ve just been recycling phone systems since 1999, but don’t let that cloud matters.

We’re hear to help and make an honest “clean” living.  Please drop us a mail with any questions. or multi-million pound contracts…

Rob Govier

rob.govier@telecomgreen.co.uk

The uptake of VOIP systems over the past few years has inflicted serious damage to the second-user telecommunications market. When clients wonder why I no longer want to buy their highly expensive PABX, I make it absolutely clear why:- the market is awash with late-model equipment looking for a home. Basic economics of supply and demand mean excess of supply means a fall in values. Can some equipment go lower than zero? Yes, sadly. We now charge to take most equipment away.

So, the new-generation equipment moves telecommunications into another, higher realm? Sadly not. Are my observations cynical and twisted, or wise? Sure, I have an “interest”, that of wanting my formerly buoyant trading activities to come back, but a few issues strike me that maybe the trade press, dependent on VOIP advertising revenue from manufacturers, tend to avoid:-

Voice quality. Sometimes it sounds like I’m calling someone from West Africa. And I swear that I’ve heard noises last heard when calling on the GPO in 1967. Supporters will reel out technical explanations about bandwidth, optimisation, but the net result is that irritating noises are back. Progress? Some VOIP champions claim that this is the price to pay for all the advantages. Voice communcation has its priorities in times of user-friendliness. The big clue is in the name. Voice…

The Dark Art Of Fault Tracing:- I observe, in talking to communcations managers, that some problems simply can’t be solved. Calls dropping, spontaneous conference calls, “wrong numbers”. The kind of problems which disappeared with crude electro-mechanical exchanges circa 1972. One major OEM told a Health Trust manager that the many faults were a mystery, and he would need to live with them as the cost of all the new technological advances. Eventually, the same chap happened to make contact with another user via a ‘net forum, and a fix was found which did not involve reinstallation of the 2000-point LAN, as was proposed at one point. I can’t recall such patience being exercised over the old equipment.

Star Wars Consoles. We collected a large consignment of analogue telephones from a local authority. They had “gone VOIP” and installed complex display ‘phones on the desk. How did these benefit the users? Well, they could only use 20% of the features on the old analogue telephones. But they could now see who was calling them. Did they do much calling off-site? No. “Why the change?” I asked. I lost eye-contact with the comms. manager at that point. Intellegence at the desktop assumes dedicated, technically-proficient users.

Features? What Features? We removed a large Siemens iSDX-L from a site that had “gone very VOIP”. The consultant involved with the change, a highly-experienced traditional voice specialist, related how he was horrified to find so many features that were an accepted part of the fifteen-year-old “legacy” PABX simply did not exist on the new kit. Nothing advanced, either. Call pick-up, multiple hunt groups, call forwarding. It pays to approach the equipment as a “voice router” rather than a private telephone exchange to avoid disappointment.

Steam and Clockwork Lasts. We are removing perfectly servicable equipment which has served organisations for over twenty years. Much of it was built to military/government specifications, in the days of The Cold War and The GPO. It chugs away, requiring very little mainentance. Will the latest server-based equipment still be around in 2021, based as it is on hardware that traces its ancestry back to IBM desktops.

Waste, Waste, Waste. I would love to conduct a survey among VOIP users to discover what they have actually gained from their new system. Meanwhile, thousands upon thousands of tonnes of perfectly servicable, non-life-expired equipment goes to its grave. Hardly eco-friendly.

More to follow. Much more, in fact. I don’t object to technology, but not “technology for it’s own sake”, pushing dubious benefits, delivering poorer quality, and wasting resources.