The UK met its overall collection target for waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) in 2016, according to data from the Environment Agency.
It shows that 581,415 tonnes of WEEE were collected last year, surpassing the target of 544,342 tonnes and an 11% increase on the amount collected in 2015.
Targets were missed in several individual WEEE streams, however. These included IT and telecoms equipment (91% of the target was collected), lamps (89%) and medical devices (42%). The poor performance in some areas has been addressed by Defra in the targets for this year.
Collection targets for lamps and medical devices have been reduced by 13% and 38% respectively compared with 2016.
Meanwhile, provisional figures from the agency for battery recycling confirm a slight shortfall against the 45% collection target for 2016. The agency said a total of 17,232 tonnes of batteries had been collected for treatment by compliance schemes last year. The target was 17,289 tonnes.
