It also adds an element of uncertainty into the complicated data measurement process and could have financial implications for various stages of the WEEE recycling chain, including local authorities.
The problem applies for the first compliance period, July-December 2007 and has arisen because of the two part nature of the way the UK collects data for waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE).
Settlement Centre
The Settlement Centre in Glasgow records all the Evidence issued by approved authorised treatment facilities (AATFs) to compliance schemes or local authorities that operate DCFs without a compliance scheme partner to show that the necessary treatment and recycling has been carried out.
The Schemes and unaligned local authorities have to separately supply data to the environmental agencies on what they have collected and it is this figure that is used to calculate the obligation data.
But the Environment Agency has found that the two sets of figure are apart by many thousands of tonnes. This could be for a number of reasons including treatment facilities/reprocessors attributing less evidence to the centre for WEEE than counted up by the contractor at the civic amenity site and protocol issues.
The final figure is vital for schemes. This is because they will then know how much WEEE evidence they have to acquire in proportion to the market share of their members. For example, if a scheme has a fridge company as a member and this company sold 10,000 tonnes of fridges into the marketplace in July-Dec 2007 it will have been told by the Environment Agency how much market share it has, such as 20% of all fridges sold. So, if 750 tonnes of fridges are recycled in July -December 2007, the scheme will have to get evidence for 20% of the 750 tonnes, ie 150 tonnes.
Schemes will have arranged their own collections from CA sites in a bid to get some of their WEEE evidence but may have to buy or sell evidence made available on the Settlement Centre or do deals with other compliance schemes or even local authorities once they know their obligation.
About 200,000 tonnes of WEEE is likely to have been placed on the Settlement Centre but if the final obligation figure is lower, less WEEE evidence might be needed. This would lead to some with a surplus being potentially unable to sell it.
Statementf
In a statement explaining its decision last night, BERR said: “The disparity is such that it calls into question the robustness of the data submitted by schemes and unaligned local authorities as a basis for the calculation of schemes' obligations. We need to understand the reasons for the disparity before we publish final obligations, and will be in touch with a number of schemes early next week to ask them to double check the accuracy of the evidence that AATFs and AEs have submitted into the Settlement Centre on their behalf.”
The Department continued: “The need for further checking means that we do not now expect to publish final collection obligations before 16 May. As the publication date for final obligations has been delayed, the deadline for submission of declarations of compliance will be extended by a corresponding period. We will not take enforcement action against any scheme that does not submit their declaration of compliance on or before 1 June 2008 providing they do submit their declaration of compliance on or before 16 June 2008 in accordance with the revised timetable.”
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