BERR holds urgent WEEE discussions

As many as seven waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) producer compliance schemes are thought to be potentially non-compliant due to problems with securing enough evidence to meet their members' obligations (see letsrecycle.com story). A few schemes have reported that they believe they have complied including Valpak and today, DHL.

DHL said it was pleased to confirm that it filed its 2007 Declaration of Compliance with the Environment Agency last week, “successfully concluding DHL's first compliance period”.

Under discussion at BERR is the issue of evidence purchase and in particular the issue involving Electrolink – which has a large amount of surplus evidence – and the schemes who are short of evidence but did not feel able to purchase it from them. The evidence involved is estimated to be worth as much as £3 million.

Arbitrator

However, there is currently no clear indication of what will be done to resolve the situation. Different views exist among compliance schemes.  

Electrolink has advocated an option of BERR buying up the surplus evidence and reselling it to schemes that are short of evidence; others have suggested that BERR take on the role of arbitrator and seek more common ground among the schemes.

As a result of the impasse, a number of civic amenity sites are still waiting for payment for services they have already provided.

Speaking to letsrecycle.com today, Paul Borrett, the chair of the National Association of Waste Disposal Officers (NAWDO), warned that, while he was not aware of any civic amenity sites that had stopped offering WEEE collection due to non-payment for services, it could become an issue.

Cost

“If civic amenity sites stop collecting it would be counterproductive, but some of the cost involved may mean that that may become the case in the future,” he explained.

“The financial issues are limited,” he added. “But that's not to say that those that have been affected haven't been significantly affected.”

Despite this, Mr Borrett was optimistic that the situation would be resolved before the potential for disruption at civic amenity sites became a reality.

“We are aware that there are still issues outstanding between some of the producer compliance schemes and that BERR are holding discussions, and will hopefully soon release funds to solve the issues with civic amenity sites and any possible disruption,” he said.

“Hopefully the majority of the issues can be overcome by discussions and dialogue,” he added.

Contracts

The relationship between local authorities and producer compliance schemes could become particularly important in the next year, with many councils only holding one year, 18 month or two year contracts with schemes to collect WEEE from their civic amenity sites.

A survey carried out by ERP in April discovered that only 15% of local authorities are committed to not changing the PCS they have contracted to collect WEEE in the near future (see letsrecycle.com story).

And, Mr Borrett explained that: “A lot of lessons will have to be learnt very shortly with contracts due to change, some existing producer compliance schemes may lose waste disposal authorities.”