The DTI has announced the Government’s decision on the approach and timetable for WEEE implementation – being January 2006, Retailer and distributor take-back obligations will also start then, although this is not set in stone yet, and due to concerns raised by Retailers that January is one of their busiest months, it may well be put back further – possibly April 2006.
The DTI is aiming to lay WEEE Regulations before Parliament towards the end of June 2005. The accompanying guidance should also be available then and registration of producers will begin over the summer. The DTI and Defra are now timetabling an intensive programme of work over the next two months to put in place the detail required to make the ‘no frills approach’ work in practice. Key to this is the methodology for allocating responsibility for collected WEEE between producers and compliance schemes. The DTI is in the process of commissioning external consultants to come up with recommendations. The Government has also recognised that there are issues for B2B and for re-use.
The basic principles of the ‘no frills approach’ are:
There will be no national clearing house — at least in the early years of WEEE implementation. The Government “expects that the Environment Agency will register producers”. If producers still want a clearing house, they will have an opportunity to establish it when the directive is reviewed at European level in 2008. In the next week or so, the DTI hopes to issue a technical consultation on the level of fees that the Agency will charge.
Producers will be expected to report sales data for the 12 months ending December 2004, showing weight and units placed on the market.
Producers will be asked to make “reasonable estimates” of the breakdown between domestic and commercial sales with the idea that their obligation for household WEEE will be allocated accordingly.
The DTI will decide a methodology for allocating WEEE to producers. As well as physical allocation of WEEE collection sites to larger producers and compliance schemes, there will be “a settlement mechanism” enabling smaller producers who do not wish to join a compliance scheme to buy compliance.
Retailers
Government and retailers are still discussing the proposal for a retailer compliance scheme put forward by retailers in March. The proposed scheme will provide a fund to upgrade civic amenity sites prepared to become designated collection facilities for WEEE. Until this has been agreed and formally approved by Government, it will be impossible to know how many sites in the civic amenity site network will be designated collection facilities.
Designated Collection Facilities
Whilst Retailers are responsible for arranging for the WEEE to be taken back, they are not keen on allocating valuable retail space for the collections. As the Directive states that there has to be “adequate collection facilities” in each Member State, it is imperative therefore that they work with Local Authorities to set up Designated Collection Facilities (DCFs) across the Country utilising the 1400 or so Civic Amenity Sites and Recycling Centres.
To encourage Local Authorities to participate, the Retailers will be setting up a scheme to allocate funds to help upgrade and run sites , and they will be sending out a letter to that effect in May 2005.
DCFs will no doubt need to consider how they are going to separate and store the WEEE for collection, and it is likely that five “groups” will be needed:
- Fridges and freezers
- Other large household appliances (cookers, washing machines etc.)
- Televisions and PC monitors
- Lighting (tubes)
- Small household appliances / IT hardware / tools / toys and other mixed WEEE
Other site criteria will be released in due course when the legislation is known – for example, the Directive states that WEEE should be stored on an impermeable surface, with the provision of weatherproof covering (to aid reuse possibilities) – the extent of this has yet to be decided.
RoHS
The RoHS Directive will be transposed into UK law as soon as the European Commission has formally notified the maximum concentration values for the substances restricted by the directive. These will have to be complied with from 1 July 2006.
WEEE permitting
Before the draft WEEE Permitting Regulations can be published for consultation they need to be signed off by ministers. This takes the form of a ministerial write-round which lasts 10 days. Although the regulations have now gone to ministers, the calling of the election puts that on hold. This means that that the draft regulations are unlikely to be published before the end of May.
Despite the delay, DEFRA still hopes to be in a position to lay the regulations in October so that they are in place before producer responsibility takes effect in January 2006. As this will not allow enough time to amend existing licenses or obtain a new one, there will be transitional arrangements to allow WEEE processors to operate within the law from January.
Hazardous Waste Regulations
The Hazardous Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2005 and the List of Wastes (England) Regulations 2005 were laid before Parliament at the end of March. They will come into force on 16 July 2005. This is the date that the Waste Acceptance Criteria under the Landfill Directive also come into force.
Hazardous household WEEE
The Waste Acceptance Criteria will be applied to all waste going to hazardous waste landfill sites. Some household WEEE which is separated out at civic amenity sites (e.g. TVs) will be classed as hazardous and will have to meet the Waste Acceptance Criteria.
This will increase the costs for local authorities until producer responsibility comes into force in January 2006 but these additional costs will be met by Government.
CRTs
The Environment Agency has concerns that the Waste Acceptance Criteria will prevent ‘activated glass’ in CRTs being sent even to hazardous waste landfill sites. It is about to commission independent consultants to explore the definition of ‘activated glass’ and make recommendations for how CRT glass should be classified.
