WEEE reprocessors have outlined plans to fund a national TV advertising campaign to encourage householders to recycle their waste electrical equipment after revealing their "frustration" with the lack of a government-run national advertising push.

Speaking to letsrecycle.com, reprocessors said that raising public awareness would be particularly important if, as expected, changes to the EU Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive mean that from 2016 the UK has to achieve substantially higher collection rates of material than it currently does (see letsrecycle.com story).

I am going to attempt to get industry together to fund a national TV campaign born out of frustration with the lack of a national WEEE recycling advertising campaign

 
Justin Greenaway, contracts director, SWEEEP

While there have been government-run campaigns to boost WEEE awareness, these have largely focused on non-TV advertising, and making promotional materials available to local authorities (see letsrecycle.com story).

Justin Greenaway, contracts director for Kent-based WEEE reprocessor SWEEEP, told letsrecycle.com that an industry-led campaign was needed - both to address the "embarrassing" 14% collection rate for small WEEE and to fill the gaps that councils could not afford to reach.

"I am going to attempt to get industry together to fund a national TV campaign born out of frustration with the lack of a national WEEE recycling advertising campaign," he said.

He added: "WRAP are doing a fair amount of work on radio and working with local authorities but it is very much at local points. That's commendable but, while local authorities are tightening budgets, I think it will get put on the backburner."

Mr Greenaway also claimed that the way the WEEE system currently worked to encourage higher levels of recycling compared poorly to the nascent battery recycling system.

"The Battery Directive is much more professionally structured in that it must be advertised as part of battery compliance schemes' operational plans and more tonnage is better than less tonnage, which appears to be the case where WEEE is concerned," he said.

In particular, he explained there was no incentive for WEEE compliance schemes to collect any more WEEE than they need in order to meet their members' obligations. Since the REPIC judicial review, over- and under-collection of WEEE has, in fact, been actively discouraged (see letsrecycle.com story).

The need for increased awareness was echoed by Dean Overton, director of West Midlands-based WEEE reprocessor Overton Recycling, who claimed that the move to percentage-based targets would be a "real shock" for the UK system.

"There's only one way they're going to deal with it and that's to get the public involved and to do that you need to tell them about it," he said.

Campaign

Mr Greenaway said that, if his plans for a campaign did get off the ground, he believed it would cost around £24,000 to produce the advert.

He explained that he was looking to get compliance schemes, other reprocessors and potential waste disposal authorities involved in the initiative, based around the idea of stakeholders funding airtime for the advert on regional ITV franchises in the area where they operate.

He also claimed that reprocessors including Viridor, Wincanton and Overton had shown interest in the idea.

However, while they both supported moves to increase awareness, the commercial manager for Wincanton, Simon Hill, and Viridor Electrical Recycling's sales manager, Graeme Milne, would not comment on whether they would play a part in any industry-led initiative.

Mr Hill said: "I think our view would be that improving public awareness of the fact that we have the ability to recycle electrical equipment would be beneficial. Whether that's done through a TV campaign or other means is a question I can't answer.

He noted that: "WRAP has produced materials for local authorities to use but there's not enough there to fund a TV campaign."

Mr Overton said that, while he was "keen" to get involved in an industry-led campaign, it would depend on the involvement of other stakeholders. "We would be interested in doing something," he added.

One industry expert told letsrecycle.com that particular stumbling blocks for a campaign could include: the cost of airtime; whether, under the current system, there is any incentive for compliance schemes to get involved; and, exactly who would be responsible for administering and organising the project.