And, Steve Andrews, the head of the WEEE policy team at BIS, revealed that EU member states had warned that the proposed target for them to collect 65% of the electrical equipment they placed on the market in the previous two years was “too high” and “not practicable”.
The 65% target works out at 22 kilograms per head, so we have got some way to go
Steve Andrews, BIS
Under the current WEEE Directive, all EU member states are expected to collect four kilograms of WEEE per head of population – with the UK collecting 6.9kg per head in 2008.
However, the draft revision of the Directive unveiled by the EU in December 2008 proposed a change to market-based goals (see letsrecycle.com story), and Mr Andrews explained that this would mean the UK be expected to collect 22kg per head – more than three times last year's figure.
“The 65% target works out at 22 kilograms per head, so we have got some way to go,” he told the letsrecycle.com Recycling and Waste Forum in London last Wednesday (June 10).
He revealed that, at a meeting in Brussels last week of the working group for the revision of the Directive, “27 member states were saying 65% is too high,” explaining that “Germany has the highest and it's at 42%”.
“So they were saying that in four or five years it's not practicable,” he added.
Progress
Providing an update on the progress of the Directive's revision, which is taking place alongside a revision of RoHS Directive for hazardous substances in electrical equipment, Mr Andrews said it would be finalised “by the earliest at the beginning of next year.”
He added: “The Swedish presidency takes over in July and has said it wants to be well on the road to agreeing the new WEEE and RoHS by the end of the year.”
Explaining that the UK would then have 18 months to transpose the recast Directive into UK law, he said “by the end of 2011 we might have new UK WEEE and RoHS Regulations to come into force by early 2012”.
He revealed that Sweden had last week announced it would be holding four meetings to discuss the revision of the Directive, and that five had already been held under the Czech presidency of the EU – three for WEEE and two for RoHS.
Mr Andrews explained that the revised Directive would be agreed using a process of co-decision, where both the European Parliament and Council consider the changes.
The Parliament's environment committee is scheduled to meet in September to discuss the proposals, he added.
Consultation
Mr Andrews said that BIS had received 75 responses to its consultation on the EU proposals, which was originally launched in April 2009 (see letsrecycle.com story).
At the time, the department raised concerns over the financial impact that EU plans to extend producer responsibility to include directly funding separate collection or kerbside collections of WEEE could have on businesses.
Mr Andrews explained that the wording of the proposed revision, that producers be “encouraged” to finance all collection costs, was “ambiguous” on whether member states would be expected to make sure producers did so, or if was merely “an option”, adding that “how it works in practice, we'll wait and see”.
UK review
Commenting on the ongoing review of the UK's WEEE regulations, which was launched in December 2008 (see letsrecycle.com story), Mr Andrews revealed that “we're hoping to publish the government response to the consultation in the next couple of months”.
He added: “We hope to lay new regulations by September 1 so the requirements can come into force by January 1 2010.”
Speakers
Among the other topics discussed by speakers at the RWF WEEE and Batteries event were the result of a survey of the WEEE sector by the UK general manager of the ERP compliance scheme, Scott Butler (see letsrecycle.com story), and an update on the implementation of the Batteries Regulations by Bob Mead of the Environment Agency.
Presentations were also made by Duncan Simpson of Valpak, Mike Beard of Electrolink, Paul Tennant of VCA and Jeff Weeks of EnvironCom.
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