It is widely expected that retailers, through the British Retail Consortium, are close to finalising a scheme which will attract contributions from retailers such as Comet, John Lewis, Dixons and Argos, and this will then be distributed through a special WEEE fund.
” Collecting WEEE is not a target or responsibility of local authorities, so unless there is an incentive to do so, local authorities will not do it “
– Mark Shelton, LGA
The retailers have come under strong pressure from the former Department of Trade and Industry, now the Department for Productivity, Energy and Industry, to come up with an “adequate network” for the collection of waste electrical and electronic equipment.
Experts claim that just over 1,000 sites will be needed and as there are 1,072 CA sites in the UK, the option of upgrading these sites to accept WEEE has been the favoured option of the retailers.
Retailers are believed to have started out offering 3-4 million a year to cover the upgrades, but local authorities have said that this amount will not be enough to cover anywhere near the amount of work to be done.
Several local authorities have been quoted between 500,000 and 1 million for upgrades to single CA sites.
Disproportionate
Mark Shelton, Local Government Association representative and recycling officer at Cambridgeshire county council, said: “Many sites are too small to start taking five separate containers of WEEE, so costs are disproportionate. It is expensive to buy the land needed to expand and many of the CA sites will need to do this. It is not just a case of paying for new skips.”
“As well as the site upgrade there is also the increased cost of employing staff to separate WEEE. This is a large cost for a small yield as they won't help to hit biodegradable waste targets. Collecting WEEE is not a target or responsibility of local authorities, so unless there is an incentive to do so, local authorities will not do it,” he added.
Local authorities have been liaising with retailers over the possibility of a retail compliance scheme, and the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee (Larac)has led the way in discussions.
Neil Ferris, principal policy officer at Larac, said: “The ball is in the court of the retailers at the moment, they are obligated to supply a sufficient network. It is up to them to make funds attractive enough for local authorities to get involved.
“Local authorities are sat here wanting to help retailers and producers deliver. But the legislation set indicated that the cost has to be covered by the sector,” he added.
Proposal
The local authority plight has been backed by the government. In 2003 when the government first suggested a retail compliance scheme it proposed that funding should be “at least 5 million in each of the five financial years in the initial period 2005-10.”
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If a collection network is not established retailers' other option is in store take back on a like for like basis. Most retailers have said that due to space restrictions this option is not logistically feasible.
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