Councils to pay more if WEEE producer costs fall

Councils may be forced to pay more towards WEEE recycling if the cost of compliance with the WEEE regulations for producers is reduced, the head of a producer compliance scheme has warned.

The comments came from Barry Van Danzig, chief executive of Electrolink, in response to claims made by producers that the current system of compliance is too costly for the businesses obligated to pay for the recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE).

A consultation into proposed changes to the system is currently being carried out by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), in response to claims by producers of electronic goods that the cost of compliance with the regulations does not reflect the true cost of recycling.

In a joint statement published this week, leading electronics manufacturers Candy, Samsung, Delonghi, Hewlett Packard, Panasonic, Toshiba and Dell voiced their support for changes that would see the cost of compliance with the current system significantly reduced (see letsrecycle.com story).

Currently councils are entitled to free collection of WEEE from civic amenity sites by producer compliance schemes who are required to collect a proportionate amount of WEEE that their producer members have placed on the market.

Higher costs

But, according to Mr Van Danzig, a natural consequence of reducing the cost of compliance for obligated businesses will be reduced income for the recycling industry that runs the network of civic amenity sites where WEEE is deposited, with higher operating costs passed on to local authorities.

He said: The recycling of WEEE is a producer responsibility, not a local authority or recycling industry responsibility. The essence of the complaint is that it is unfair to producers as the rise in scrap values has not reduced the cost of WEEE in the UK.

The basis of the argument is now shifting to: if the obligated producer does not pay then who does?

The loser here is bound to be the local authority as either the recycling service provider passes on the lost revenue to them under their change of legislation clauses in their PFI contracts or by having to charge more to operate household waste recycling centre (HWRC) sites as the loss of revenue and increased and unpaid workload takes effect.

Guarantee

Mr Van Danzig is urging councils to ask for a guarantee from BIS that they will not be subject to a higher cost for running designated collection facilities (DCFs), and has warned that councils could leave the DCF network altogether if costs are passed on to them.

He added: The local authority is not obliged under the EU directive to be a DCF, it is the responsibility of BIS and the producers to ensure that a national network exists. If producers want to use the local authority DCF network then they must ensure that the local authority does not pick up any direct or indirect costs of recycling WEEE.