The producer compliance scheme is responsible for funding around half of the target level of UK WEEE recycling in the household sector by tonnage, under the WEEE Regulations.
Now we've seen this normalisation of prices, things are falling into place – like the pieces of a chess board.
Dr Philip Morton, REPIC
This is because of its large producer membership including brands like Hoover, Kenwood, LG, Panasonic, Philips and Toshiba.
It has had to purchase surplus recycling evidence from rival scheme Electrolink, because it does not have sufficient collection sites on its contracted network to cover all its members' obligations under the Regulations.
Schemes have until the end of May to submit and audit their evidence of meeting WEEE Regulation recycling targets.
Evidence prices
While it will not disclose publically the details of yesterday's agreement to purchase surplus recycling evidence from rival scheme Electrolink (see letsrecycle.com story), REPIC chief executive Philip Morton today insisted that prices for surplus WEEE evidence have now “normalised”.
He said prices had been allowed to escalate because some contractors had not understood which costs could be included in fees for producers. The issue has since been clarified by the government's Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR).
Dr Morton said: “People felt that the extent of producer responsibility was not clear. Discussions with BERR have seen that issued clarified, and I think the WEEE Regulations are very clear that only a proportion of the WEEE handling costs can be covered by the producer, and that other legitimate costs can be covered by organisations like the Distributor Takeback Scheme. BERR has made this very clear. Prices for 2007 have normalised, because BERR has swept away the barriers.”
Speaking to letsrecycle.com this morning, Dr Morton argued that his members have always made funding available for contractors to recycle the required level of WEEE since the WEEE Directive has came into force in 27 European countries including the UK.
But, he said REPIC was not happy that other schemes were seeking to collect “vastly” more WEEE than their own members' requirements in order to pass high costs onto REPIC.
Dr Morton said he understood that collection costs vary from site to site, by type and geography, and that there has “never been an issue” with the designated collection facilities on REPIC's own collection network.
However, looking forward, the REPIC chief executive said that assuming the various issues with collection data are resolved by the Environment Agency, his scheme would be able to finalise its evidence arrangements.
He said: “Now we've seen this normalisation of prices, things are falling into place – like the pieces of a chess board.”
Data
Earlier this week saw red faces at Veolia's WEEE compliance scheme, as the Environment Agency blamed it for some of the problems with WEEE collection data issued regarding July to December 2007 (see letsrecycle.com story).
Since then, the Agency has published more data on its website showing how much equipment was sent to recyclers and exporters, which reveals more questions than it answers.
The figures suggest domestic reprocessors took in 234,000 tonnes of household WEEE in the six months up to December 2007, compared to the 158,000 tonnes that compliance schemes reported that they sent to be recycled. On the non-household side, recyclers have reported taking in 230,000 tonnes of business WEEE compared to just 10,000 tonnes reported by schemes.
While schemes may have had their members dealing with business WEEE themselves, their members are required to pass evidence on to their schemes to show the material has been recycled according to the Regulations.
The Agency has some work ahead of it to untangle these figures, to confirm that sufficient material has been recycled to meet the WEEE Regulation targets in all categories of waste electrical and electronic equipment.
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