The Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment
(WEEE) was passed in 2003 and initial plans to pass it into UK law
were scheduled to start in 2004. The Department of Trade and
Industry now says that the Directive will be law on 1st July
2007.
One of the measures which the environmental legislation will put
in place is a Distributor Takeback Scheme, which will involve
facilities across the country where people can drop off old
equipment to be disposed of in an environmentally-sound way. The
producers of the equipment will have to finance these.
"Electrical equipment is the fastest growing category of rubbish
across the European Union, with around 20kg per person produced
every year, and the UK alone is now generating around 1m tonnes of
the stuff every year," said energy minister Malcolm Wicks.
"By providing a way of ensuring that electronic waste no longer
has to go to landfills, manufacturers and importers will have the
responsibility to ensure that they plan for both their new and
existing products to be recycled rather than dumped," said
Wicks.
The law will place a greater administrative burden on suppliers
of equipment. They will have to register with waste schemes and
more closely track their products in order to pay for their
disposal.
"It will be similar to the laws about packaging waste," said
Paul Rice, a partner specialising in environmental law at Pinsent
Masons, the firm behind OUT-LAW.COM. "Companies joined schemes
which negotiated with local authorities and waste management
companies to collect and recycle material on behalf of
members."
"Those schemes were very complicated and there were problems,
but the WEEE schemes will be much more complicated because the
materials are much more varied," said Rice.
Producer and supplier trade bodies the Association of
Manufacturers of Domestic Appliances (AMDEA) and the Small
Electrical Appliance Marketing Association (SEAMA) warned that the
law will cause problems. The SEAMA said that it would lead to price
rises on consumer electrical and electronic goods.
The AMDEA said that the charges were unfair in cases where old
equipment made by companies that no longer exist and cannot pay
their share will be disposed of at a cost to current suppliers.
The Conservative Party took issue with the delays in
implementing the law. "The Government have gone about implementing
this Directive in a thoroughly shambolic way," shadow trade
secretary Alan Duncan told the Daily Mail. "Endless delays, reviews
and consultations have created uncertainty for retailers and the
impression that the Government does not take this issue
seriously."
"The delays were because a lot of the regulations were not clear
enough," said Rice. "The UK and Malta are the only of the 25 Member
States not to have transposed the Directive into law, but other
people are having problems too. Many other countries missed the
deadline last year to have the laws come into force."
