Devon takes control of its WEEE evidence notes

As the “stand-off” over collection costs continues, the county council has decided to take matters into its own hands and sell its recycling evidence notes itself in an attempt to recoup costs.

It will therefore seek to trade the evidence notes to producer compliance schemes that need them via the Settlement Centre, the government's co-ordinating body for the WEEE producer responsibility system.

And, if the squabble between producer compliance schemes over evidence notes is not resolved within two weeks, the county council has said it may re-tender its producer compliance scheme contract recycling the WEEE.

The move by Devon comes after another county council working with Electrolink in the first compliance period under the WEEE Regulations, Oxfordshire, is already seeking expressions of interest for a WEEE compliance scheme tender.

Speaking to letsrecycle.com yesterday, Ben Jennings, county waste manager at Devon, explained: “The simple position is that we are seeking to gain control of our evidence notes because Electrolink aren't getting any cash flow and can't pay our recycling contractors.”

Nervousness

Mr Jennings revealed an increasing “nervousness” within his authority about the issue of WEEE, since the county had been forced to fund the transport of WEEE from his county's 20 centres to recycling companies over the last two weeks.

“We will try to massage the system a little longer, so that Electrolink might be able to sort itself out,” Mr Jenning said. “We're two weeks into this difficulty, and I can probably stomach this for another week or two.”

A letter to approved authorised treatment facilities receiving Devon's WEEE requested that they issue the county council with evidence notes for materials received from January 26th, as well as from July and August 2007, a period also not covered by Electrolink's funding.

Mr Jennings said it was a difficult choice to make, since working with Electrolink had gone “exceptionally well” for the first compliance period. He said nevertheless, if the situation was not resolved soon, the county would have to go out to tender or remove its sites from the national WEEE collection network.

“If indeed the cash flow difficulties between the contractors aren't solved quickly, I can't be using Council Tax payers' money on a system that is supposed to be paid by the producers,” he said. “We would have to possibly go out to contract again.”

The problem for Devon in re-tendering the contract is that its WEEE is expensive to collect compared to other local authorities. A large rural county, transport distances are significant for servicing the 20 recycling centres collecting WEEE.

“We are working quite hard with BERR and others to find a solution that is mutually successful to all parties,” Mr Jennings said. If the county does go out to tender, he said Devon could only work with those compliance schemes who apply.

Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire county council has set a deadline of February 22 for expressions of interest from producer compliance schemes seeking WEEE from its eight designated collection facility sites from July.

Pamela Lloyd, waste contracts officer, said: “Oxfordshire County Council is planning to issue tender documents to PCSs that have expressed an interest in early March 2008, with tender returns to be received by 31st March 2008, to start provision of services on 1st July 2008.”

Electrolink

Commenting on Devon county council's decision to start trading its own WEEE evidence, producer compliance scheme Electrolink said it understood the county's reasons for doing so, but was optimistic it would be able to continue working with Devon in the future.

Barry Van Danzig, Electrolink chief executive, said: “We have an excellent relationship with Devon County Council and of course 2007 and the first month of 2008 has been completed. However, due to the uncertainty over the enforcement of the regulations, the prohibition on the charging of interest on borrowed money used to finance the cash flow, a crisis caused by the refusal of many schemes to trade evidence notes through the Settlement Centre, Electrolink cannot fund the ongoing cost until the matter is resolved. Devon county council must therefore either, stop taking WEEE or re-tender the work, which may mean passing some of the costs of meeting producer obligations onto the long suffering local tax payer.

“Hopefully common sense will prevail and either the trading of evidence will start or the regulations will be enforced or working capital funding will be encouraged until they are enforced, in which case the contract with Devon can carry on as at present,” he said.

• The North London Waste Authority is also engaged in a tender process to for a WEEE producer compliance scheme contract, but this is not linked to issues surrounding Electrolink. Expressions of interest are being sought by February 11, With three organisations to be shortlisted for interview on February 20. A final decision will be made on Thursday 21st February.