That is the warning from Electrolink, the compliance service for waste electronics run by the Wastelink Group.
” Building a database and identifying who has what percentage share is a complex thing to address over a few months.“
– Peter Gaffney, Electrolink
The company says its experience with packaging producer responsibility – through its Wastepack scheme – suggests time is running out for the environmental agencies to set up systems to monitor and regulate WEEE producer responsibility.
Electrolink's Peter Gaffney said a major delay in the packaging waste regulations during the late 1990s meant full producer responsibility was held off for a year as the country was not ready to begin assessing individual responsibilities in time for the planned start date.
Mr Gaffney believes that this could be the case for waste electronics next year if the regulators are not given enough time to prepare a registration system for producer compliance under Europe's Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive.
Complex
He said: “Given that the Agencies have now been given the responsibility of registration, there is a lot of work to undertake. Building a database and identifying who has what percentage share is a complex thing to address over a few months.”
Mr Gaffney pointed out that until the Agencies know how the system will be run it is impossible for them to make any moves. If the legislation is not soon in coming there is a possibility of the UK not being ready for June, he claimed.
” We would like the maximum amount of time that we can have between the regulations being published and the effects of the regulations coming into effect.“
– Adrian Harding, Environment Agency
“We may have a situation similar to the early days of packaging – companies registered but for the first year there was no obligation,” said Mr Gaffney.
Agency
The Environment Agency has played down the need to move swiftly to get the new legislation laid down, but Adrian Harding, policy advisor for producer responsibility, said it will need time to put arrangements in place.
Mr Harding said: “We would like the maximum amount of time that we can have between the regulations being published and the effects of the regulations coming into effect. For the Agencies, the bigger the gap the better.”
Mr Harding explained that there were still some outstanding issues to be resolved – such as deciphering between household and non-household electronic waste, and whether electronic waste exported directly out of the country should count against a company's overall electronics goods percentage.
” We can't delay any more – we just need to get on with it. “
– Clare snow, ICER
“Once these issues are cleared up we will be in a position to design a database form for the registration of compliance schemes, which will allow compliance schemes to begin registering their customers,” Mr Harding said.
ICER
Producer responsibility for waste electronics has been timetabled for a start in June 2006, but industry still has no clear idea which system the UK government is to adopt.
Clare Snow, director of the Industry Council for Electronic Equipment Recycling, said: “There is no way of knowing when the WEEE Directive will be transposed into UK legislation. It is likely to be October or November, but any more specific than that is not possible.”
Ms Snow said six months would “probably” be enough time between the adoption of the new regulations and the start of producer responsibility for industry to prepare. “But we can't delay any more – we just need to get on with it,” she added.
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