The Department of Trade and Industry has announced that major parts
of an EU law requiring businesses to recycle their old IT and
telecoms equipment will not come into force in the UK until January
2006 – five months late.
The Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE
Directive) sets criteria for the collection, treatment, recycling
and recovery of waste electrical and electronic equipment. It is
due to come into force in August 2005, for the original 15 Member
States, and in August 2007 for the 10 new Member States.
A further EU law, the Directive on the Restriction of the Use of
Hazardous Substances (RoHS Directive) facilitates the dismantling
and recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipment by
restricting the use of hazardous substances used in their
manufacture. It is due to be in force from 1st July 2006.
Member States were supposed to have implementing legislation for
both Directives in place by August 2004, but only Greece complied.
The UK missed the deadline, blaming its delay on difficulties in
publishing the draft regulations and guidance notes, but promised
to have the necessary laws in place by October last year.
These have been further delayed, and last week the DTI published
an open letter advising that it could no longer meet the
implementation deadline of 13th August because of "major practical
difficulties".
"The Government has received many representations from
businesses and others saying more time should be taken on the
practical implementation in order to get it right. Several other
major EU Member states now appear to be planning their practical
implementations on a similar, deferred timetable," says the
letter.
According to the new timetable, Regulations implementing the
RoHS Directive will be ready shortly, while Regulations
implementing the WEEE Directive will not be available until the
summer.
Key parts of the WEEE Regulations, including the producer
responsibility obligations for household and non-household WEEE and
the retailer/distributor take back obligations, will not come into
force until January 2006, says the letter.
According to reports, the delay has been welcomed by industry.
Dr Philip Morton, of the Recycling Electrical Producers Industry
Consortium, which had been lobbying for a delay, told ZDNet
News:
"There are a number of important issues that still need to be
resolved. Premature implementation of the Directive would have led
to higher costs for consumers and put UK jobs at risk; we now have
an opportunity to find solutions that work for everyone".
