Government pledges to cover councils&#39 new burdens for WEEE

The DTI announced this week that producer and retailer responsibility for waste electrical and electronic equipment would be delayed until June 2006 (see letsrecycle.com story).

” DTI will meet any costs to local authorities of arranging the treatments required for any televisions and PC monitors containing CRTs and fluorescent lamps which they collect separately and send to a hazardous waste landfill in advance of the WEEE Regulations “
– DTI
In the light of this announcement, the DTI has now said it will cover “new burden” costs incurred by local authorities for separately collecting electronic waste that has been newly classed as “hazardous” since changes to landfill regulations came into force in July.

A spokeswoman for the DTI told letsrecycle.com: “We announced previously that we would meet local authority new burden costs in the light of ministerial decision to defer the WEEE implementation.

There have been questions over exactly what the DTI will count under this new burden funding. The DTI spokeswoman therefore explained: “Specifically, we have said that DTI will meet any costs to local authorities of arranging the treatments required for any televisions and PC monitors containing cathode ray tubes and fluorescent lamps which they collect separately – rendering these 'hazardous' – and send to a hazardous waste landfill in advance of the WEEE Regulations introducing producer responsibility for these costs.”

Welcome move


Local authorities have welcomed this move, which they believe could ultimately see “220,000 televisions diverted from landfill”.

Neil Ferris, vice chair and principle policy officer at the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee, said: “We very much welcome this clarification of new burdens.

“Our members can now introduce separate collections of WEEE at the 714 sites in England and can now offer the public CRT collections safe in the knowledge that the costs will not fall on local authorities. There is a potential to divert 220,000 televisions thanks to this funding,” he added.

Fridges


Mr Ferris said that local authorities would still want clarification over fridges, as the statement failed to confirm how these would be dealt with.

“The only issue left is the Ozone-Depleting Substances WEEE for the second half of 2005/06 and the first half of 2006/07. These are not covered in the DTI statement so we will be looking for further clarification,” said Mr Ferris.