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Dell, Samsung & Hp Slam The Weee Recycling Dirrective
By David Thorpe
Major electronics firms Dell, Samsung, Hewlett Packard, Panasonic, Toshiba and Candy have slammed the "excessively costly" existing compliance system for recycling waste electronic and electrical equipment (WEEE).
They are members of the Joint Trade Associations, a group of eight trade associations affected by the legislation, which has issued a statement supporting changes to the system proposed by the Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) in a consultation on the WEEE Dirrective launched last month.
The proposals arise from the Recast Directive and seek to reduce costs, improve transparency, and return the added value of recycling to all participants.
The existing system is seen as deeply flawed by Tom Nickson, environmental affairs manager at Toshiba, who says: “We are fully supportive of the need to change the current flawed and anti-competitive system, while increasing the ability for a producer to ensure a high standard of recycling".
The government’s own impact assessment admits that the current system inhibits competition and choice, saying: "there is no incentive for a PCS to offer a lower price to attract new members even where it has surplus WEEE, since it can always sell surplus evidence to deficit PCSs who must buy at the given price to meet obligations or face criminal sanctions".
BIS’ proposals include introducing a ‘National Producer Compliance Scheme’, instead of competition between current compliance schemes; setting targets for compliance schemes along with a “compliance fee” if these are not met, instead of the trading of WEEE evidence data between collection schemes, and matching collection sites to collection schemes.
Samsung Electronics’ UK head of sustainability, Kevin Considine, agrees: “The government’s consultation presents the UK with a fantastic opportunity to move to an equitable system allowing maximum freedom and choice for all stakeholders; encourage those collecting WEEE with a net value to collect more and retain more income from properly treated WEEE; and, for the first time, create a system with competition and choice at all levels.”
Mark Dempsey, European waste policy adviser to Hewlett-Packard, said the consultation and its accompanying impact assessment “underline the excessive costs and lack of audit for WEEE that result from the evidence trading system”.
Last week, the WEEE Scheme Forum, which represents 26 of the 38 producer compliance schemes in the UK and over 90% of the tonnage obligation, announced it will bid to act as the operator of a ‘Producer Takeback Scheme’, as set out in some of these these proposals.
Members of the WEEE Scheme Forum include members of the Joint Trade Associations, such as: B2B Compliance, Budget Pack, C10C, DHL Exel, ERP, Recolight, REPIC, Transform, Valpak and WEEEComply.
Meanwhile, many computer and electronic manufacturers are separately lobbying to have waste electronic and electrical equipment (WEEE) reclassified as ‘non-waste’ to enable it to be exported to developing countries for repair.
Under the Basel Ban Amendment, currently implemented in 33 countries, the export of WEEE (classed as a hazardous waste) to developing countries is illegal.
But the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), an association that includes some of the same electronic manufacturers, including Dell, HP, Sony, Samsung, LG and Apple, want to see the ‘Technical Guidelines on Transboundary Movements of Electronic and Electrical Waste (E-waste)’ amended to "ensure the environmentally sound management of e-waste" while promoting a "common understanding among governments that movements of used equipment for legitimate repair and reuse are not wastes".
This would help companies with the "environmentally sound and economically efficient management of used electronic and electrical equipment destined for materials recovery and recycling".
The deadline for response to the consultation is 21 June.
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