Individual WEEE producer responsibility considered

Under the current WEEE system, producers of electronics are collectively obligated to pay towards the cost of collecting and recycling a certain proportion per household when it becomes waste. However, they are not directly responsible for recycling their own products which means they have no incentive to design their products to make them to last longer or make them easier to recycle.

This issue was flagged up in a Green Alliance report published in October entitled Reinventing the wheel: a circular economy for resource security which warned that producers need to improve product design and that economic instruments were needed to encourage a more sustainable production process.

And, speaking at a Green Alliance event yesterday (November 12) entitled Building resilience: resource security and the role of the circular economy, Mr Cable said that his department wanted to improve the situation.

He said: It is one of my departments many responsibilities to implement the regulations required for the WEEE directive. They have real economic as well as environmental value, helping to support innovation, growth, investment and jobs. Everyone has a role to play consumers, business-end users, manufacturers of products, recyclers, local authorities and waste management companies.

But the Green Alliance report argues that the collective nature of the scheme dilutes the incentive for better design. Such design could help reduce our reliance on difficult-to-mine rare earths.

We want to improve that. After the negotiations on the revision to the WEEE Directive are concluded, we mean to take a hard look at how a system of greater individual producer responsibility might be introduced to make it better for industry and environment.
Mr Cable said that rare metals were one example where getting the design right was particularly important.

He said: Let us take rare earth metals as one example, not many people appreciate how vital they are to modern devices like mobile phones. However, although they are used in small quantities, their location in each component is known, and their recovery can be significantly eased by designing this process in it at the beginning.

Event

Speakers at the Green Alliance event also included EU environment commissioner Janez Potonik and environment secretary Caroline Spelman, as well as Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) chief executive Liz Goodwin.

Dr Goodwin also highlighted the need for greater focus on recycling at the design and manufacture stage. She said: Our research shows that in general, its the strategies that extend the life of goods or reduce the consumption of electronic and electrical goods that have the greatest impact.

Meanwhile Dr Neil Bentley, deputy director-general of CBI, called for government and industry to work together to encourage better resource management.

Addressing delegates at the event, Dr Bentley outlined three steps needed to create a dialogue between government and industry. He said: The first is to recognize that resource efficiency is central to our future economic prospects. The second is to establish a shared understanding of what we really mean by resource efficiency. The third is to tackle the policy and market risks that can hold back investment in resource-efficient products and services.

Given our economic circumstances, it is private capital that will have to fund progress. What we hear from those looking to invest is that unlocking this capital is almost within our grasp, but frustratingly were not there yet. Businesses need, above all else, policy certainty, consistency and clarity over the long-term.