eWTS

eWTS™ is a comprehensive software package for the management of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). eWTS addresses the needs of organisations operating within any part of the WEEE lifecycle including: local authorities; logistics and distribution companies; waste treatment specialists; material recyclers; disposal companies and compliance scheme operators.

The key strength of eWTS is its rigorous tracking of all material to: demonstrate compliance with legislation; provide accurate and detailed financial accounting for all material transactions and demonstrate environmental performance.

eWTS is unique in giving full traceability from receipt of goods to eventual disposal.

Designed by the Industry for the Industry

eWTS is the result of 4 years collaboration between software specialist Cygnet Solutions Ltd. and experts and practitioners in the electrical/electronic waste management industry. eWTS is therefore a practical solution which meets the actual needs of the industry. The software is in daily use in locations across the world, managing a wide variety of material types.

Regulatory compliance

eWTS is unsurpassed in its ability to track material from the point of receipt to final disposal.

eWTS has been designed to comply with the provisions of the WEEE Directive 96/2002/EC and other existing and emerging European legislation relating to WEEE.

eWTS is structured to help organisations achieve and maintain ISO 14000 registration.

Flexibility

As more specialist treatment companies enter the marketplace, the ‘supply chain’ of organisations involved in WEEE handling/ processing is becoming increasingly complex. eWTS can accommodate any number of parties in the supply chain, provide complete financial accounting in accordance with agreed contracts and account for all material movements. eWTS is able to export/import accounting data to common accountancy packages such as SAGE.

Scaleability

The architecture of eWTS supports multi- user, multi-site operation with any number of material types and treatment centres.

eWTS can be licensed on a ‘per user’ or enterprise basis which makes it affordable to smaller operators whilst providing the ability to grow with the needs of the business.

An option exists for licensing by levy on the quantity of WEEE managed by eWTS, i.e. a charge per kilogramme of material processed.

Tracking throughout the WEEE lifecycle

The typical lifecycle (post end-of-life) for electrical and electronic material may require two or more stages of segregation and treatment, often at different sites. In some cases individual items lose their identity at the point of collection but, increasingly, organisations involved in WEEE management are seeking traceability through the complete treatment and disposal process.

eWTS is able to track material through the whole lifecycle, providing full forward and reverse traceability of all material handled. Where this level of traceability is not required eWTS can be configured to operate at a coarser level of detail.

Certification/Documentation

Certification is required at many stages of the WEEE handling process, for example when segregating hazardous materials, transporting materials between sites and final disposal of residual materials which cannot be recovered, recycled or re-used. WEEE (untreated or semi- treated) may be shipped to other countries for specialist treatment in refineries or other processing plants. Such ‘trans-frontier’ shipments involve additional stringent documentation obligations.

eWTS can produce all the regulatory documents/records required for WEEE management, including consignment notes, certificates of destruction and duty of care notes.

For external documents which are available only in hard copy format, eWTS holds all necessary document references which simplifies the auditing process.

Financial Accounting

eWTS contains comprehensive facilities for financial accounting of all material movements, treatments and disposals. Payments/credits are applied for each material type at each stage of the WEEE lifecycle. Consolidated invoices/ credit notes are generated for each party within the WEEE processing chain. Invoices/credit notes can be generated on a timed basis (e.g. Monthly) or per batch. Pro-forma invoices can be produced prior to the availability of final yield data and recyclate valuation. Multiple currencies are handled with automatic exchange rate conversions.

Invoice/credit note details can be periodically exported to external accounting systems.

Asset recovery optimisation

One of the strengths of eWTS is the facility to maximise the financial return from recovered materials. eWTS is able to build a library of material types and to select the preferred processing/disposal route so as to maximise the value of the arising recyclates. This process takes account of market prices and commodity price fluctuations.

Material Identification

Material can be identified by means of user-supplied identification codes. Widespread use may be made of barcodes for material identification at the batch and individual item level. The use of RFID (radio frequency identification) tags is also supported.

Platform

eWTS is available as a secure, web hosted service, accessible using standard web browsers. Alternatively, organisations can host their own dedicated eWTS server running under Microsoft Windows, SQL Server and Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS).