The future of the UK WEEE sector will involve fewer but larger players among compliance schemes, reprocessors and local authorities, according to the chief executive of one of the country's largest producer compliance schemes.
Dr Philip Morton, of REPIC, told letsrecycle.com that he believed the waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) sector would enter a period of “structural changes”, brought about by the evolving regulatory environment.
There are going to be larger parcels of WEEE going to fewer plants through fewer players
Dr Philip Morton, chief executive, REPIC
“It's normal that every industry goes through a process of evolution,” he said. “If you want to click forward, you can image there will be seven to 10 bigger regional treatment plants and a few specialised players and I think we will get fewer but bigger schemes.”
Explaining that he also expected local authorities to begin “grouping together” to deal with the waste stream, Dr Morton said: “There are going to be larger parcels of WEEE going to fewer plants through fewer players.”
His comments come less than a month after the WEEE reprocessing sector saw further consolidation with metals recycling company Sims announcing the £17.5 million acquisition of logistics firm Wincanton's WEEE recycling assets (see letsrecycle.com story).
State of play
Dr Morton also commented on the state of play for producer compliance schemes a year on from the High Court ruling on the judicial review it brought against the department for business and Environment Agency over the UK WEEE system (see letsrecycle.com story).
The ruling provided clarity and helped to bring to an end the over- and under-collection of WEEE, as well as unplanned trading, and as a result, Dr Morton said: “All the excesses have gone,” adding that “the market expectations of what people can charge for things have got more realistic.”
Dr Morton explained that the onus was now on schemes developing direct relationships with the people who collect and reprocess WEEE. He claimed that REPIC was now, in terms of direct relationships, collecting WEEE from collection sites – normally civic amenity sites – covering more of the UK population than any other compliance scheme.
“In the past, there were more relationships where it was completely imbalanced and it went through various intermediaries and now for environmental, financial and corporate governance reasons we're far better having a short, clear audit trail which allows less WEEE and less money to flow out of the system,” he said.
With high-profile media coverage of alleged illegal exports of WEEE from the UK, Dr Morton added: “The longer you make the chain, the more opportunities there are for leaks to happen.”
Recast
Dr Morton also highlighted the significance of the ongoing recast of the EU WEEE Directive, which currently includes proposals including a new percentage-based collection target for member states, as well as an open scope for defining what is covered by the Directive and one registration for producers across Europe (see letsrecycle.com story).
Some in the sector have suggested that introducing kerbside collections of small WEEE will be the only way to achieve the higher collection goals expected to feature in the recast Directive (see letsrecycle.com story).
But, Dr Morton said. “I don't think necessarily kerbside is the solution for small WEEE and neither, it seems, does the Commission now,” he said, pointing towards the fact that proposals to extend producer responsibility to cover collection from households have been dropped from the recast document as it stands.
I don't think necessarily kerbside is the solution for small WEEE and neither, it seems, does the Commission now
Dr Philip Morton, chief executive, REPIC
“I think the most telling thing is the latest compromise text which was agreed to by the environment committee has talked about the polluter pays principle and has put the producer, retailer and consumer all in the frame. It's bringing those three players [including the consumer] into the chain and that seems fair
“All you do if you encourage kerbside is potentially involve an environmental and economic impact unnecessarily, especially if WEEE is diverted from more favourable routes rather than achieving any increase in the amount collected” he added.
Dr Morton also questioned how difficult the recently proposed 85% collection target (based on WEEE generated rather than the initial 65% based on EEE sold) would actually be, claiming that it will be entirely dependent on what the EC actually define as the WEEE generated in each Member State.
“That definition may not be finalised until after the recast is adopted so all 27 Member States could be taking a bit of a leap of faith,” he said.
Future plans
Looking to REPIC's future plans, the scheme's procurement director, Wayne Copley, said that the scheme was continuing to look to increase the number of councils it worked directly with.
He explained that a “reasonable number” of contracts between councils and compliance schemes were coming up for change at the end of the current financial year, and said: “People are already having a dialogue with us.”
Dr Morton said that he expected to see the rate of change to direct relationships in the system “stepping up”, but said that, in terms of adding to its producer members, REPIC would only sign up new producers if it benefited both its existing membership and the system as whole.
“If someone wanted to join us but we had to source more WEEE from another scheme and it's the same one they already have, what's the benefit?” he asked, but noted “it's easy to fit them in where we have material surpluses in categories or where there is strategic benefit to them and the system.”
And, he said he expected to see more WEEE being collected through the retail route in the future, explaining that “environmentally it's the best, cost is low and in terms of the consumer it is the most convenient solution”
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