Speaking yesterday in the House of Lords, the director of sustainable development and regulation for the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, Tony Pedrotti, agreed with the view from peers that so-called individual producer responsibility (IPR) would drive “eco-design” in the electronics sector.
IPR is a marvelous idea and would drive eco-design – and would be pure producer responsibility. But how can we do it? No European country is doing this.
Tony Pedrotti, BERR
But Mr Pedrotti said that bringing in an IPR system within the current waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) system would be extremely difficult.
“If you want total IPR you will have to sort out every single product and work out which manufacturer made it,” he said.
“IPR is a marvelous idea and would drive eco-design – and would be pure producer responsibility. But how can we do it? No European country is doing this – they may have it on the statute books, but no European country is doing it,” Mr Pedrotti declared.
The BERR director was addressing the Lords Science and Technology Committee yesterday, as part of its inquiry into waste reduction.
“No incentive”
During the hearing, Professor Lord Lewis of Newnham raised his concern that within the existing WEEE Regulations there was “no incentive” to manufacturers to design their electronic products to be easier to recycle or less wasteful.
This was because the Regulations require manufacturers to arrange collections of their products collectively via compliance schemes.
In reply to the peer's concerns, Mr Pedrotti said the Department's new WEEE Advisory Group – expected to be announced soon – would look into the issue of IPR, while he said compliance schemes have already been asked for their views.
“What we have asked producer compliance schemes, who are working with producers on WEEE, is to put recommendations to us by the end of the year on how we could implement this,” he said.
“We would welcome any ideas from the advisory body and producers on how we can move to such a system,” said Mr Pedrotti, who later suggested IPR could form part of the European-level review of the WEEE Directive expected next year.
WEEE collection
During the hearing yesterday, Lord Lewis also suggested that something should be done to make it easier for householders to recycle their old electrical products – particularly smaller appliances.
The former Cambridge chemistry professor and Cambridgeshire resident complained: “The WEEE Directive has delegated to local authorities the actual point of collection. Now if I want to get rid of something I would have to drive out to the edge of Cambridge to get rid of it – whereas I could just put it in the bin and that would not be illegal.”
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