Warning over CA site income loss in new WEEE system

And, one compliance scheme which currently has a large share of recycling evidence arising from WEEE collected at civic amenity sites has warned that local authorities and their contractors could receive less income under the new system.

Barry Van Danzig, chief executive of WEEE compliance scheme Electrolink, said that he believed there would be little competition in the future for civic amenity site material which would see income received by local authorities reduce.

Changes

The change comes about because in the future, BIS is proposing to end the trading of evidence by schemes who have more evidence than they need to cover their own obligations. This links to the number of producers of electrical goods who are members of a scheme (see letsrecycle.com story).

Accordingly, the compliance schemes in the future will have to only link up with an appropriate number of civic amenity sites although they may also opt for other ways to collect material. If they end up with more evidence than needed they will not be able to trade it.

Paul Borrett, a member of the policy committee of the National Association of Waste Disposal Officers and a specialist in WEEE, said he thought the outcome of the changes in the short term would be influenced by the way existing contracts were written between local authorities, waste contractors and compliance schemes.

Complex

Referring to the BIS document published last week containing details of the new system, Mr Van Danzig said: It is an extremely complex document and it will be difficult for everyone involved in not knowing what they are looking for.

Going forward, local authorities will have no choice to which scheme they align themselves to because there wont be any competition for designated collection facilities [CA sites] as these can only be linked to a schemes obligation. About 54% must go to REPIC.

He added that the new system was effectively allocating local authroities to compliance schemes removing the element of choice under the current system.

Mr Van Danzig explained: This is progressively an allocation system by commercial default. Local authorities will have imposed on them the terms and conditions which schemes want to impose. We fought against it in 2007 we cant fight it again without the support of local authorities with their contractors from the waste management sector.

And, the Electrolink chief executive, added that there was the potential for local authorities and their contractors to receive less income from scrap material under the new system. Even where local authorities expect to get the value of the scrap, compliance schemes might push the price down at the AATFs [approved authorised treatment facilities] so that local authorities get less money back for scrap.”

Mr Van Danzig added that Electrolink “will be only running sufficient sites to meet our obligations. We stand ready to help the local authorities if they want us to.”

Local difficulties

Mr Borrett, who is also strategic waste manager at Norfolk county council, said that local authorities would currently be assessing the BIS proposals and there might be some local difficulties.

He explained: A lot will depend on the individual wording of the contract arrangements in place. There might need to be a change in approach for some authorities and some might need little change. We are changing contractor next April and so we can be prepared for the new system.

Mr Borrett said that the new regime might have more of an impact on waste management companies than councils directly. Many CA sites are operated on a fixed management fee for the contract and the income from WEEE is a contractual bonus for the contractor. If this reduces it might be that there are options and clauses within the contract that allow for changes to be passed back to the local authority. There might be some local difficulties where flexibility is not inherent in the contract although local authorities have known that changes were being discussed.