BIS minister Michael Fallon has commended WEEE compliance scheme REPIC for its 10 years in operation, and has described the 1.5 million tonnes of material recycled on the schemes behalf as a remarkable achievement.
The minister was speaking at a reception in the House of Commons, hosted by Bury MP David Nuttall on Wednesday (March 18), attended by REPIC scheme members to mark a decade since the organisation was established.
The scheme was set up in January 2004 by members of AMDEA, SEAMA and Intellect three of the main trade associations in the electrical and electronics industry to meet their producer obligations under the WEEE Directive.
Mr Fallon, who was handed the WEEE brief within the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) in September 2012 (see letsrecycle.com story) also used the occasion to mark the introduction of the new WEEE regulations, which came into effect in January 2014.
He said: Reaching 1.5 million tonnes of Waste Electrical and Electronic equipment is a remarkable milestone to reach in less than seven years since the WEEE Regulations took effect.
It is also an opportunity to celebrate the introduction of the better, fairer WEEE Regulations that we introduced at the turn of the year. I am sure these will translate into lower compliance costs for companies here today and indeed for the thousands of producers placing electrical equipment on the market in the UK this will ultimately benefit consumers.
Campaign
REPIC has recently launched its Responsible Recycling campaign – a consumer-facing initiative aimed at increasing awareness around WEEE recycling and boosting the amount of WEEE deposited at bring banks and HWRCs around the UK.
The campaign includes a website with details of how and where WEEE items can be recycled as well as a mobile phone game which includes facts about WEEE recycling.
Philip Morton, chief executive of REPIC, said: These are very exciting times for REPIC. We are hugely grateful to our members, local authorities and other collection partner and treatment companies.
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Together they have helped us break the 1.5 million tonne mark in the UK. Whats more, we are entering REPICs eleventh year of operating, optimistic in the knowledge that the WEEE industry at large has better times ahead.
The new regulations are designed to create a fairer, more transparent arena than previously, to better reflect the true cost of compliance, remove evidence trading and create a visible audit trail for treatment and recycling.
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