The Directive sets targets for the collection and recycling of WEEE, placing the financial responsibility for treatment on producers. There had been hopes that new regulations on waste electronics would be completed by the Department of Trade and Industry before the summer break.
However, proposed regulations are currently believed to be in the parliamentary library for reading by other government departments, including Defra and the Environment Agency. There is a 21-day response period for this stage and the regulations will then be looked at again by the DTI with suggested changes taken into account.
It seems unlikely that the DTI would be unable to make to make any detailed announcement until September at the earliest about its proposals.
Time
Producer responsibility for WEEE is set to begin on January 1 2006 and every extra month it takes to finalise UK regulations gives industry less time to prepare.
WEEE compliance schemes, which have been set up to assist producers and retailers with their obligations to collect and recycle waste electronics, will need to register themselves and their companies with regulatory authorities, but until final details of the regulations are in place there is great uncertainty about what is needed.
Proposals had suggested a national clearing house to organise the allocation of producer responsibility for waste electronics deposited at designated collection points, but these plans were dropped in February (see letsrecycle.com story).
There are now concerns that the Environment Agency may struggle to implement its registration system in time for the January 2006 start. These concerns have been compounded by the Agency's problems in attempting to register sites for the hazardous waste regulations this month (see letsrecycle.com story).
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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