Dixons concerned over WEEE legislation “responsibility gap”

The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive will see producers taking responsibility for the collection and recycling of their equipment from August next year.

The regulations state that a company selling equipment to business that replaces WEEE placed on the market before the August 13th start date (historic WEEE) must take redundant electrical items back free of charge.

But in its response to the latest consultation on new regulations the Dixons Group indicated that there was a responsibility gap between the producer of replacement goods for business and the seller.

The response stated: “As currently framed, it appears that the seller must offer to take redundant WEEE items for free, but there is no mechanism to involve the producer of the replacement equipment.

“In this instance, therefore, it appears that producer responsibility is transferred to the seller, which might often be a retailer,” It said.

The response goes on to point out that this is counter to the aims and objectives of the Directive. It calls for “detailed clarification” on how producers will assume full liability for the replacement of historic WEEE.

Multi retail groups

Dixons Group also expressed apprehension about retail groups subsidiaries' and their abilities to join different compliance schemes. At present retailers will be able to join a compliance scheme to cover their share of WEEE take back or they can offer like-for-like in store take back services themselves.

The issue raised by Dixons Group is whether or not larger companies with several different chains will be able to take different subsidiaries in different directions, an area not covered by the consultation.

Vivien Williams, environmental manager at Dixons Group, explained: “At Dixons Group we have several subsidiary companies, all will have different preferences towards like-for-like take back. Some will be happy to try it, others simply won't have the room.

“”For instance the Link is already offering take back on mobile phones. However, the Link solution cannot necessarily be duplicated across all of our brands. Flexibility is required,” she said.