As the UK seeks to implement the European Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive by August 2004, one of the many contentious issues involved is how the separate collection of items will operate.
The WEEE Directive requires retailers to provide a like-for-like take-back of equipment or an alternative service, but speaking at the National Household Hazardous Waste Forum's Big WEEE Workshop yesterday, Dixons Group environment manager Vivien Williams said in-store take-back is not a practical option.
“In-store take-back does not float our boat,” she said. “We don't think people will bring back appliances to stores and we question the whole issue of setting up a system based on this consumer behaviour.”
Ms Williams explained that Dixons already provides an established take-back on delivery service for large household goods, but it is smaller items that now pose a problem because they are not covered by any existing collection system and are often discarded by householders along with their unsorted refuse.
“The issue of smaller items is where we think we should focus,” Ms Williams said. “The problem is you can get them in the (household) bin.”
CA sites
Some stakeholders are advocating the use of local authorities' civic amenity sites as collection points for WEEE as a viable alternative to in-store take-back. But, under the terms of the “polluter pays” Directive, local authorities have no financial obligation.
Ms Williams said that in Dixon's view it should not be retailers who fund CA sites, funding for WEEE facilities should come from electrical equipment producers. She added that the company is not willing to pay for the collection for items of WEEE it already provides a service for, such as the take-back on delivery service for large goods.
Ms Williams said: “Retailers don't want to be a scapegoat for what has to be done. We don't want to be seen as the source of funding for WEEE collection infrastructure.”
Consultation
Sheila McKinley, head of producer responsibility at DEFRA, said that no firm decisions had been made regarding the collection of WEEE. Also speaking at the WEEE Workshop in London, she revealed that collection would be one of the topics to be discussed in the second consultation paper on the WEEE Directive, due to be published by the end of November.
Mrs McKinley stressed that all WEEE, both large and small items, must be covered by some kind of collection service. “What we will not have is a gap. There will either be in-store take-back or alternative arrangements by the retailers,” she said.
Re-use
The Directive currently includes re-used electrical equipment in collection targets, but excludes re-use from recycling targets. However, Mrs McKinley indicated that this situation is likely to change.
“It seems likely that we will have targets in the future,” she said. “Once we have provided information regarding the amount to equipment that is sent for re-use, then the European Union will then create targets for the re-use of goods.”
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