In its work to bring the European WEEE Directive into UK law, one of the options believed to be under consideration by the DTI is for large producers to provide all collections for waste electronics, with smaller producers effectively buying compliance from them.
” Large companies are not going to be able to convince shareholders to let them bank roll smaller companies.“
– Dr Philip Morton, REPIC
The WEEE Directive sets producers the responsibility to collect waste electronics and reach certain recycling targets for equipment collected (see legislation section).
Dr Philip Morton, chief executive of REPIC, said he believes that having small producers complying with the Directive by paying larger producers for collecting equipment will not be popular among industry.
“If anyone goes down this route it is fraught with dangers,” Dr Morton told letsrecycle.com. “Large companies are not going to be able to convince shareholders to let them bank roll smaller companies – they aren't charitable organisations.
“It is akin to asking someone to pay tax for a whole street and then sending them around the houses to get the money back. Some of the smaller retailers will not be found, companies can't go to shareholders saying that they will be paying extra and then recovering the funds from anonymous organisations,” he added.
Market
Dr Morton also said that at the other end of the scale there would be problems for the smaller producers. He said it would not be a free market for them to buy compliance from large producers, explaining: “If 100% of something has to purchased, that isn't a free market. You have the last-apple-in-the-basket problem, because someone has to buy it. Smaller producers would have to bow to larger producers' wishes.
“At the moment things are at the talking stage and there is a lot more talking to be done. I suspect that large organisations will not want to go down that route,” the REPIC chief executive concluded.
Producer responsibility for waste electronics under the terms of the WEEE Directive is expected to come into force in the UK in January 2006.
Letsrecycle.com is holding a special conference on the way forward for waste electronics on October 12. For more details see the letsrecycle.com events page
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