Industry has proposed the concept to the Department of Trade and Industry as the government finalises legislation to bring into force Europe's WEEE Directive. The Directive requires producers to fund the collection and recycling of end-of-life electronics.
” The system will only work if all the compliance schemes and producers that are obligated sign up and pay for their compliance.“
– Phil Conran, Transform
The settlement centre would mean producers or compliance schemes could collect any amount of electrical equipment arising at a collection point regardless of their actual obligation. They could then claim compensation if they collect more WEEE than their fair share, which would be calculated based on how much equipment companies place on the market.
Companies that have not collected enough WEEE – or have not taken part in collections at all – would have to pay an average cost for their share of the collected tonnage.
An arms-length body operating outside of the regulations, industry believes the settlement centre would be an answer to the unpredictability of how much WEEE will arise at each collection point. The proposal comes after the idea for a “clearing house” to organise WEEE collections was dropped by government early this year (see letsrecycle.com story).
DTI
Producers and compliance schemes have been meeting with the DTI to work out the details of the settlement centre idea so that legislation can be in place in time to prepare for the scheduled start of producer responsibility in June 2006.
Phil Conran, recycling manager at Biffa and its WEEE pre-compliance scheme Transform, is part of the producer stakeholder group discussing plans with the DTI.
He said: “The producers have proposed that at the end of each quarter those organisations that have collected more WEEE than they need place their tonnage into the settlement system alongside their cost of collection per tonne.
“Companies that have under-collected and those that are not involved in the collection process will then pay an average price per tonne, based on everybody's collection prices, for the amount that they need to reach their obligated tonnage,” he explained.
Settlement
Mr Conran said that settlement costs for those companies that do not collect enough WEEE would have to be based on actual costs of collection.
He said a free market system like the packaging sector's PRN system would not work, since companies collecting more than their obligation could theoretically hold other companies to ransom for compliance. This is because under the WEEE regulations, producers will be held responsible for every item of WEEE collected separately from the general waste stream.
“Whoever held the last tonne would be able to charge whatever they liked because it would have to be purchased by someone,” explained Mr Conran.
Weakness
The weakness of the settlement centre idea would be if there are producers that do not register and pay for their share of WEEE collection costs.
“The system will only work if all the compliance schemes and producers that are obligated sign up and pay for their compliance,” said Mr Conran. “If there are gaps then compliance schemes will have paid large costs to collect WEEE that they are not obligated for, without being able to get those costs back.”
He warned that Transform, which is currently offering pre-compliance services, would not become a full compliance scheme if it has to pay for compliance costs of non-members.
Mr Conran was one of the speakers at yesterday's WEEE conference held by letsrecycle.com in central London.
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