Too much WEEE
Spring cleaning as we know it could be changed for ever under impending European waste rules.
New EU rules on “WEEE” (waste electrical and electronic equipment) take effect from Summer 2005, designed to address the rapidly growing amounts of waste electrical goods.
Each spring many of us dutifully begin an annual clear out, replacing the old with the new. Whether you are just throwing out a foot spa that hasn’t even made it out of the box or even treating yourself to the latest top of the range, ice making, aluminium, SMEG fridge, you must be aware of these new regulations. But the new rules don’t stop at household goods. In fact, they apply to 10 major categories of both consumer and business equipment: large household appliances; small household appliances; IT and telecommunications equipment; consumer goods; lighting; tools; toys and leisure equipment; medical devices; monitoring and control instruments; and vending machines.
Just about anything that moves, lights up, bleeps or makes a noise is covered, whether mains or battery operated, (or, in the words of the Directive, anything “which is dependent on electric currents or electromagnetic fields in order to work properly”), from washing machines to personal stereos, from mobile phones to cardiac monitors, from hover mowers to strip lights to car radios to beard trimmers.
What will no longer be acceptable is for such items simply to be chucked out with the rest of the household or office rubbish, mixed up with the potato peelings, junk mail, and used tea bags, and the UK has until August 2004 to bring in the necessary laws implementing the WEEE Directive’s timetable for take-back and recycling of WEEE.
What’s required is that by August 2005 householders be allowed, free of charge (and at the manufacturers’ expense), to have their WEEE collected separately from other household rubbish. The WEEE itself must then be taken to a recycling centre for sorting, reuse and recycling. By the end of 2006, this system must be able to show that an average of at least 4kg of WEEE per head of population is being collected each year.
Where you need to dispose of an item because you’re buying a new one, retailers will also be under an obligation to ensure that, when selling new electrical goods, the purchaser can return any equivalent old item to them, free of charge. Although some retailers currently operate such a policy with new fridges and white goods, the Directive will make such arrangements mandatory for all waste electrical items. It remains to be seen quite how this will work with internet suppliers, who are also subject to the Directive. A further difference will be that, unlike the present system, the goods which are taken back MUST be removed to licensed treatment centres for reuse/recycling, including an element of dismantling, to remove such things as batteries, toner cartridges and large LCD displays.
Once collected and sorted, the obligation will then be on the manufacturers to deal with the recovery of the WEEE, all in accordance with the “producer responsibility” thrust of European waste laws, with ever more stringent targets being set, and new recovery technologies being developed. By the end of 2006 recovery targets of, on average, 70% of the average weight of each appliance must be seen to be achieved.
Furthermore, when putting new products on the market, manufacturers will have to show that suitable financial guarantees are in place to cover the take-back and recovery costs.
Anticipated costs of implementing the WEEE Directive range from £200M to £400M, depending on how it is implemented.
Quite how it will work in practice has not yet been decided. Free take back will certainly not take the form of hiring a van to take your old washing machine back to Comet and expecting them to meet the cost. Rather, it’s thought that collective arrangements might be put in place, where local councils are given extra funding to improve their “civic amenity sites”, to provide for separate collection and sorting of WEEE. The additional costs, almost inevitably, will be passed on to consumers somehow, whether in the form of increased retail prices, or even more expensive product warranties. Either way, major changes are afoot. Spring cleaning will never be the same again!
FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: VINCENT BROWN