WEEE Delayed in UK until 2006

‘Major practical difficulties’ will see the introduction of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive delayed in the UK until January next year – five months later than the legal deadline. The move by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) follows similar delays in other European countries and is not isolated to Britain.

The purpose of the WEEE directive is to increase the collection and recycling of electronics scrap. It obliges manufacturers to take back obsolete equipment they have sold, and organisations will need to find ways of dealing with unwanted hardware that vendors will not take back. Leading industry players voiced their concerns that the directive needed to be delayed within the past couple of months.

 

The DTI is now planning to transpose the directive into UK law this summer with the aim of coming into effect in January 2006.

 

In another change, it is reported the DTI has changed its mind about a national “clearing house” putting recyclers in touch with waste collectors and calculating how much producers should pay. The Environment Agency will instead register producers, with the DTI establishing the financial responsibility of producers.

 

The delay has been welcomed by the industry. Michael Saddler, who is head of WEEE compliance at Valpak, a provider of producer responsibility and recycling solutions for UK businesses, said the announcement was good news and meant there was time for greater clarity on some of the key issues in the directive, before it comes into effect in the UK.

 

Mr Saddler said one of the greatest concerns has been the timeline, which was widely acknowledged to be unworkable, but the new schedule will allow industry to plan more effectively. 

 

While the delay has brought some relief, Mr Saddler added that the new deadline was still very challenging and would require a great deal of partnership working between the government and industry to meet the new implementation date.

 

The DTI also decided not to impose mandatory visible fees, as was outlined in the Government’s third WEEE consultation, meeting another of the waste industry’s recommendations.

 

For Intellect, the IT supplier industry group, John Higgins, its director general added that even with the new deadline, the industry remains uncertain about exactly what the law will require.

 

Intellect’s current estimates suggest that WEEE legislation costs to the UK electronics industry are some £455million (about €665million) a year – which, if transposed onto the cost of the products themselves, would be equivalent to cost rises of as much as 4% on some products.

 

Part of the problem, added Mr Higgins, is that no agreement has yet been reached on the mechanisms of implementation.

 

Even though the DTI has listened to the industry, there was criticism for the government. Sue Doherty, Liberal Democrat environment spokesperson said it had not faced up to the problems posed by introducing the directive.

 

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