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Critics Claim WEEE Failed to Deliver in First Year in U.K.
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A year on from the implementation of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive in the U.K., critics claim that a number of compliance schemes are on the brink of failure and that many organizations are failing to embrace initiatives designed to promote re-use of IT equipment.
The WEEE directive entered U.K. law last July with the aim of minimizing the impact of electrical and electronic goods on the environment by increasing re-use and recycling and reducing the amount of WEEE going to landfill.
The legislation follows the "polluter pays" principle, whereby IT manufacturers take on environmental disposal responsibilities for e-waste, either themselves or by signing up with a government-approved waste-handling firm, also known as a compliance scheme. The manufacturers have a duty to provide a free collection service for customers so they can easily return their equipment at end of life.
According to the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), 40 compliance schemes now exist. But Jon Godfrey of IT disposal services firm Lifecycle Services, which was recently acquired by the global Sims Group, insisted many of these schemes were failing.
"The compliance schemes are meant to supply the government with a breakdown of the equipment they recycle so it can attribute value to the data they collect," he said. "But most have not submitted the data, defeating the point of the regulation."
This absence of recycling data has resulted in uncertainty over how much manufacturers should be paying to cover the cost of recycling, according to Godfrey, who explained that it would be unfair to ask a manufacturer to pay extra to fund recycling programs as a result of a compliance scheme's failure to provide the government with accurate data.
The government's response to schemes reporting failures also remains unclear, with a BERR spokeswoman stating that non-compliance with WEEE will be considered on "a case-by-case basis."
Godfrey added that a relatively small number of schemes were beginning to dominate the market, pointing to two schemes that had successfully passed the first WEEE compliance period: Valpak and DHL. He said that these larger schemes tend to be more reliable because "they have to work harder" to satisfy high-profile clients such as Dell and HP. However, he warned that in contrast number of smaller compliance schemes appeared to have been set up to generate a quick income and were at risk of collapse.
The legislation is also dogged by "grey areas," according to James Taylor of law firm Simmons and Simmons, who said that many importers remain unaware of their WEEE obligations. He explained that under the directive, producers need to clearly mark WEEE-compliant products. However, if a manufacturer imports from outside Europe, the importer needs to take on the responsibility for labeling -- a fact he claimed many importers were unaware of.
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Asset register is key to WEEE compliance
The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive may be touted as a cost for suppliers, but unless organisations get their asset registers in order, it will also create a significant cost for UK business.
Such policies as WEEE assume a level of asset management far beyond that achieved by the majority of UK business. Unless supplying a like for like replacement, suppliers will only remove and dispose of equipment they have delivered initially. How many UK businesses can accurately identify the location of their WEEE equipment within the organisation and confirm when it was purchased and from whom? Without such information, just which company do they expect to handle the free disposal?
Organisations need to implement sound asset disposal procedures. Linking the asset register to a document management system will ensure a scanned WEEE certificate is linked to a disposed asset, providing the required audit trail. Each asset can be recorded alongside the supplier’s name and email address, enabling swift supplier contact when disposal is due.
UK business is already complaining about excessive red tape, perhaps why the WEEE Directive introduction in July 2007 was so downplayed. But a belief that the onus of WEEE is firmly on equipment suppliers could be an expensive mistake.
Yours faithfully,
Karen Conneely
Group Commercial Manager
Real Asset Management
www.realassetmgt.co.uk