Speaking at a London Community Recycling Network seminar on Thursday, the LGA's executive manager for waste and environment management commented that many people involved in the WEEE Directive seem to presume that councils are going to accept WEEE at their civic amenity sites.
Ms Roberts said: “The LGA is not going to roll over and die on the issue of CA sites. We are going to push for in-store take-back and working with retailers to see whether this option is possible.”
Under the WEEE Directive, retailers are to provide a like-for-like take-back service on old electrical goods when a consumer purchases new ones. If this is not possible they can provide an alternative service for the separate collection of WEEE.
Local authorities have no obligation to provide WEEE collection services, but the British Retail Consortium and the government have proposed using existing infrastructure by funding some CA sites to take WEEE.
Also speaking at the London CRN event, Defra's Daniel Kapadia said: “Retailers have lobbied very hard not to have to do the take-back in store. The option to provide an alternative is there and it is difficult because it has to be just as easy for final holders to return their WEEE. We think the CA site infrastructure does need to be built on and does need to be a significant part of WEEE collection.”
But Ms Roberts said not all retailers are completely averse to providing in-store take-back and some might consider providing this service. “I wouldn't be discouraged,” she said. “As a local authority, if you talk locally to your electrical retailers there may be more interest in take-back.”
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