Delegates at a Chartered Institute of Waste Management’s seminar in London on the forthcoming WEEE regulations raised fears that there would be a lack of space available in many CA sites, contributing to difficulties in accommodating the bulky electrical waste from WEEE collections.
Clare Snow, director for the Industry Council for Electronic Equipment Recycling (ICER), said that they were carrying out a survey as to the suitability of CA sites for use in collecting household WEEE. The results will be available in June 2003 and will cover geography, manpower, space and current practice.
Ms Snow, who has been involved in WEEE issues for 10 years, pointed out that the major difficulty involved in the upcoming regulations would be the cost. She said: “It’s going to cost between 10 and 40 per person just to initiate the WEEE Directive.”
Other concerns included health and safety issues for CA site operators and forthcoming hazardous substances regulations, which could mean sites would need special licences to handle WEEE.
The speakers at the conference also included Mark Downs, head of the recycling unit at the DTI, who said a significant complication in the Directive would be determining which items were covered by its demands. He explained that even if an electronic component is a small fraction of an item, all the materials involved would still come under the scope of the Directive. This would include products that might easily overlooked, he said, giving the example of dolls that cry.
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