The four major manufacturers that formed the European Recycling Platform in 2002 (see letsrecycle.com story) have now revealed their intention to operate a pan-European compliance scheme.
The announcement by Sony, Braun, Electrolux and Hewlett Packard came in the same week that the UK government released its second consultation paper on the implementation of the European Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive.
Under the WEEE Directive, producer and financial responsibility for the recycling and treatment of waste equipment falls on manufacturers and importers of electrical goods.
The four members of the group hold a 14% share of the European electrical goods market and are keen to see a standardised approach to the WEEE Directive taken by all EU member states.
The European Recycling Platform is now undertaking business planning for the operation of its proposed European compliance scheme and is also in discussions with other producers of electrical goods about joining the recycling scheme. The producers hope that by joining forces to comply with the WEEE Directive they will be able to make “significant” savings.
Braun's Hans Korfmacher, chairman of the European Recycling Platform, explained: “By pooling volumes and procuring recycling services on a European level, we have realised that we have the opportunity to reduce our annual recycling costs by millions of Euros. Naturally, we want to explore this approach further.”
UK research
The European Recycling Platform has contributed funding to a UK Centre for Economic and Environmental Development (UK CEED) research project into WEEE collection and treatment.
It is hoped that the findings of the research will help manufacturers, councils and other stakeholders explore how the WEEE Directive could be implemented including the costs of data collection.
Hugh Knowles, UK CEED's project director, said this week: “The WEEE Directive has major implications for producers in areas such as product design, supply chains, marketing strategies and brand protection. It also has implications for local authorities and waste collection companies in terms of designing new routes for collection and processing of the waste raw materials.”
The UK CEED project will use data from Peterborough city council's WEEE recycling scheme, which received 250,000 from DEFRA, and will see one of the UK's first local authority WEEE processing facilities opening in the city next year.
Peterborough Councillor Ben Franklin said: “More and more electrical goods are being brought across Peterborough and the UK, and many of these are being land-filled, and the number is increasing. Peterborough sees the solution to cope with electrical and electronic waste by recycling and re-use.”
He added: “The era of recycling and re-use is truly upon us and we see the WEEE directive as a positive step towards solving the electrical and electronic waste issue.”
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