The average man or woman in Britain uses over 3 tons of electrical and electronic waste in a lifetime. How do you convey that quantity in a dramatic way? WEEE man is an art installation in Britain that attempts to graphically demonstrate the average amount of electrical and electronic waste that a Briton uses in his or her lifetime. The sculpture stands 7 meters high and looks a lot like C3PO. It’s made from discarded equipment such as washing machines, televisions, microwaves, vacuum cleaners and cellphones.
WEEE comes from the European Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive, which is just now becoming law in the European Union. The law requires that all manufacturers who build and retailers who sell products in the EU assume responsibility for the products at the end of their usefulness. Technically, it’s called end-of-life management. The ultimate goal is to reduce the amount of WEEE going into landfills by reducing the number of goods used, finding other users for the goods, decreasing the amount of hazardous materials in those goods, or recycling the components where possible.
Here is the text of WEEE.
Update: calculate your WEEE footprint here.