UK government delays recycling law
WEEE directive postponed until 2006
The UK government has postponed implementing an EU directive which will require retailers and manufacturers to recycle used electrical goods.
The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive calls on all EU member states to put in place recycling programmes for mobile phones, televisions, computers, washing machines, fridges, and other electrical goods. The aim is to prevent toxic substances such as lead and cadmium being put into landfills and ultimately finding their way into the water supply.
The directive requires retailers and manufacturers to make arrangements for recycling old products, and to provide consumers with deatils when products are sold.
However, DTI official Chris Tollardy, who is in charge of implementation of the European directive, The Recycling Electrical Producers’ Industry Consortium (Repic) confirms the delay. He conceded that “the government has encountered major practical difficulties in meeting the directive’s legal deadline of 13 August 2005 for implementation of its obligations on producers and retailers”.
Repic has called for consumers to pay a recycling fee when they buy equipment, to cover the cost of disposing of old products. Philip Morton, Repic’s chief executive, said: “This is an important issue and impacts on every household in the UK, which must contain at least 30 to 40 products that are subject to this directive. There are a number of important issues that still need to be resolved.”
The move was cautiously welcomed by Dixons Group, Europe’s leading electrical retailer. Vivien Williams, Dixons Group environment manager, said: “We welcome what broadly seems to be a sensible and practical response to the transposition of a challenging Directive.
“However, we remain concerned that January 2006 – one of the busiest periods of the year for electrical retailers – has been chosen as the new start date. We will continue to press Government to look at bringing in the change on the commencement date in April 2006.
“The Dixons Group already runs efficient take-back services for many products and we have added our experience on the economics and logistics of these schemes to the debate. We believe good progress has been made on discussions concerning a retail compliance scheme. The Dixons Group looks forward to working with all parties to progress this issue further.”
Other EC countries, including Germany, are also expected to delay the implementation.
