The WEEE directive entered U.K. law last July with the aim of minimizing the impact of electrical and electronic goods on the environment by increasing re-use and recycling and reducing the amount of WEEE going to landfill.

The legislation follows the "polluter pays" principle, whereby IT manufacturers take on environmental disposal responsibilities for e-waste, either themselves or by signing up with a government-approved waste-handling firm, also known as a compliance scheme. The manufacturers have a duty to provide a free collection service for customers so they can easily return their equipment at end of life.

According to the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), 40 compliance schemes now exist. But Jon Godfrey of IT disposal services firm Lifecycle Services, which was recently acquired by the global Sims Group, insisted many of these schemes were failing.

"The compliance schemes are meant to supply the government with a breakdown of the equipment they recycle so it can attribute value to the data they collect," he said. "But most have not submitted the data, defeating the point of the regulation."

This absence of recycling data has resulted in uncertainty over how much manufacturers should be paying to cover the cost of recycling, according to Godfrey, who explained that it would be unfair to ask a manufacturer to pay extra to fund recycling programs as a result of a compliance scheme's failure to provide the government with accurate data.

The government's response to schemes reporting failures also remains unclear, with a BERR spokeswoman stating that non-compliance with WEEE will be considered on "a case-by-case basis."

Godfrey added that a relatively small number of schemes were beginning to dominate the market, pointing to two schemes that had successfully passed the first WEEE compliance period: Valpak and DHL. He said that these larger schemes tend to be more reliable because "they have to work harder" to satisfy high-profile clients such as Dell and HP. However, he warned that in contrast number of smaller compliance schemes appeared to have been set up to generate a quick income and were at risk of collapse.

The legislation is also dogged by "grey areas," according to James Taylor of law firmSimmons and Simmons, who said that many importers remain unaware of their WEEE obligations. He explained that under the directive, producers need to clearly mark WEEE-compliant products. However, if a manufacturer imports from outside Europe, the importer needs to take on the responsibility for labeling -- a fact he claimed many importers were unaware of.