REPIC – the Recycling of Electrical Products Industry Consortium – has said local authorities that put forward their civic amenity sites as designated collection facilities will receive free collections and collection containers.
”We don't expect councils to go out and purchase their own containers. As far as we are concerned we will be offering the containers to each of the sites that are designated to us.“
– Dr Philip Morton, REPIC
The pledge followed comments made by the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee last week that funds offered by the British Retail Consortium may not be enough for councils to provide collection facilities for waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) (see letsrecycle.com story).
Dr Philip Morton, chief executive at REPIC, said: “In response to LARAC's comments following the BRC announcement, we would like to say that we don't expect councils to go out and purchase their own containers.
“As far as we are concerned we will be offering the containers, or appropriate substitutes, to each of the sites that are designated to us,” Dr Morton explained.
Collection
Those sites classed as designated collection facilities and allocated to REPIC's responsibility would receive five separate containers for the collection of different types of waste electronics, the scheme said. If a site is too small to accommodate the five containers, five separate “piles” of WEEE could be collected on a “round robin” basis.
The compliance scheme would begin collections from a selected number of sites on a regular basis, based on data already collated. If the collections were too frequent, or not frequent enough, changes could be made to adjust to a more appropriate schedule.
REPIC's service providers would require free access to the sites to collect WEEE and replace containers if the system is to work, Dr Morton said.
Categories
The not for profit organisation has said that it wants to ensure minimum disruption at sites, so it has based the five-container collection system on systems already in place at many council CA sites.
The proposed categories, subject to regulatory approval, would be:
- Cooling appliances: Fridges, freezers
- Other large domestic appliances: Cookers, dishwashers, washing machines etc
- Cathode ray tubes: Televisions and monitors
- Small domestic and mixed appliances: Tools, hairdryers
- Lighting: Fluorescent tubes, energy saving light bulbs
Dr Morton said: “Time is ticking by and we need to start taking decisions about how the WEEE Directive will work in reality. As a compliance scheme currently representing 80% – by weight – of those effected by this legislation, we believe that our proposal offers the least cost, least hassle solution for all parties involved.”
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