in this video, we made an association with Recolight we're going to discuss if electricians
require a waste carrier's license and if you're breaking the law and facing porridge if you don't
have one we've all been there we've removed lamps or light fittings from a job and then we need to
take them away for disposal let's just consider a brief history of how this may have been done over
the years a mercifully long time ago fluorescent tubes would have been placed into a big steel
drum on site and then smashed to pieces in a severely misguided attempt to save the environment
by compacting the waste to be removed once we realised the horrendous and irreversible damage
that was being done to both electricians and the environment by this malpractice alternative
arrangements were made now it was critical that fluorescent tubes needed to be carefully handled
and disposed of through responsible channels not just smashed up on site or chucked in a skip so
the tubes would be carefully transported and then chucked into a landfill site and subsequently
smashed up then it was finally recognised that fluorescent tubes and other types of discharge
lighting are actually classed as hazardous waste due to the concentrations of mercury
and other dangerous chemicals and that they would need handling and disposing of through approved
and regulated channels coupled with this was the advent of the waste electrical and electronic
equipment or WEEE regulations were implemented in the UK in 2007 in order to try and reduce the
amount of waste electrical equipment going to landfill and making sure that it gets recycled now
while as an electrician you have a responsibility to make sure the waste is recycled correctly
the electrician doing installation work should be able to access free or reduced cost recycling
and this is where Recolight comes in they are a non-profit organization that provides
recycling services for electrical materials for free in many cases especially as the name would
suggest for lamps and luminaires this can range from having containers delivered to your site
for waste light fittings or lamps that's ideal for big projects or refurbishments where you meet the
minimum requirements for free collection right down to the national network of free lamp and
luminaire drop-off points at various wholesalers up and down the country what's really appealing
about this service for me is that if you're doing a big renovation and replacing a whole building's
worth of light fittings if the new fittings are made by one of ricoh light's partner manufacturers
then the fittings you remove from that building will then qualify for free recycling by Recolight
they also offer battery and small mixed wii recycling for power tools and such like
great stuff however that brings us back to our original question let's say that you need to drop
the lamps and luminaires off at a collection point and you're going to have to transport them in your
vehicle can you just chuck them in the back and drive them there well the short answer is legally
no if you're going to transport waste generated by your business even if it's going for recycling
rather than disposal you need a waste carrier's license now this is split into two tiers a lower
tier and an upper tier because the waste you're carrying is clusters construction waste it means
that you will need an upper tier license if you're only transporting waste you generate yourself it's
free to register otherwise it's 154 pounds and after three years the upper tier license will need
renewing at a cost of 105 pounds for another three years and you only need one license per company
not per personal vehicle so they can be used by multiple branches or depots they can be fairly
easily acquired through gov.uk and will allow you to transport and drop off waste in appropriate
places with peace of mind now if you're found to be transporting waste without a license then
you could be fined up to 5 000 pounds which is kind of a big deal so in short if you're going
to transport waste as part of your electrical work then yes you will need a waste carrier's license
so what a relief to know that Recolight have got you back and can provide support and
help for complying with the we regulations and contribute to making electricians lives easier
for further information about the lamp and luminaire recycling they offer as well as
their broad range of other services and how they can help you to comply with those all-important we
regulations please head to recolight.co.uk where you'll find answers and support but as usual
we want to hear from you have you had your waste carrier's license sorted for years now or will you
be frantically filling in forms tonight will you be making use of Recolight's excellent services
to comply with the wii regulations please leave your thoughts and questions in the comments below
and all that remains in this video is to say thank you very much for watching