In its recent consultation paper on the implementation of the WEEE Directive into UK law, the government said it would encourage but not require councils to collect electrical equipment at civic amenity sites (see letsrecycle.com story).
Giving evidence to the parliamentary Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Sub-Committee last night (8/12/2003), Alice Roberts, LGA executive manager for waste and environment, said the government had overestimated the capacity of current waste services. “The message out there is that local authority infrastructure can cope with this and what we want to say is that it probably cannot,” she said.
She added: “What local authorities want is flexibility and the recognition that the existing infrastructure will not cope with what is coming.”
There are huge differences between civic amenity sites run by different councils, Ms Roberts explained. For example, some areas, such as Hackney, have no such sites available and others having no room to expand services to include new containers, she argued.
She added: “In terms of local authority infrastructure there is considerable variability in the service and we believe the household waste site network alone will not deliver the WEEE Directive or adequately separately collect WEEE.”
Vision
Ms Roberts added that more than one collection system will be needed in order to provide a sufficient service and coverage. “We should be a bit more visionary and take a bit more of an imaginative approach to meet the demands of the Directive over the next ten years,” she said.
Although Ms Roberts did not rule out door-to-door collections for WEEE, she was firm on the point that it would not be appropriate for all areas and that it should not be the councils that pay for this service. She also said that whilst she understood retailer take-back for smaller firms was unfeasible, she thought larger outlets could play an important role in WEEE collection and raising public awareness of the issues involved.
Subscribe for free