10 Jul 2008
Minister Malcolm Wicks has announced a review of the waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) system and warned companies not to jeopardise the scheme.
He unveiled the move when speaking at an event organised by the Department for Business to mark one year of the directive being implemented.
"I cannot and will not let any producer compliance scheme running with its own agenda threaten the whole system and we will be working with the enforcement authorities to ensure that those who wish to distort the system are dealt with effectively," warned Wicks.
"All producers must play their part and schemes should work with local authorities and with the re-use and treatment sectors to share best practice and find efficiencies. This is what I expect to see going forward."
To complement the move, he spoke of plans to raise consumer awareness to further encourage the separate collection of electrical and electronic waste from other household waste.
"It is important we explain the WEEE system more clearly to the public through a consumer campaign and we intend to embark on this toward the end of this year," he said.
Wicks also highlighted achievements in the first year of WEEE in the UK, including exceeding the EU target by 2kg per person, and challenged industry to raise collection levels to 10kg by the end of 2009.
"In the first compliance period the UK collected over and above the 4kg target with a collection rate of 6kg per person. This is an impressive achievement," he said.
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WEEE assumes a level of asset management far beyond that achieved by the majority of UK businesses
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
Posted by Karen Conneely, 17 Jul 2008