News 

The Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment (WEEE) Directive - the
recycling framework set by the EU - was meant to pass into UK law in
August last year, but another DTI setback means there's now no concrete
date for enforcing it.

This foot-dragging leaves several industries on tenterhooks: manufacturers
don't know what recycling-friendly design improvements are required,
retailers are still debating who should bear additional distribution costs
and recyclers don't know how best to invest in new disassembly plants.

'It's another pathetic delay from the DTI, a department full of people who
don't believe in legislating,' said Michael Warhurst, senior campaigner at
Friends of the Earth. 'They want to build a framework that everyone in the
industry likes and, while it's fine to consult, you can't please everyone.

'At the moment, we have a large market of uncertainty, where no-one can
plan ahead. Unless producers are made legally responsible, you just end up
with more and more equipment in landfills.'

Despite the WEEE Directive being passed three years ago by European
ministers, some seven million tonnes of electronic waste still clutters the
continent each year, so why the delay?

Protectionism is one answer as, according to DTI minister Malcolm Wicks,
'the government is committed to achieving an implementation of the EU WEEE
Directive that delivers its environmental objectives while safeguarding
the competitiveness of UK manufacturers'.

But this doesn't disguise the fact that the UK is likely to be the last
European nation to implement the directive, and the blame doesn't lie
solely with the government.

The waters are muddied by conflicting interest groups: manufacturers,
producers and retailers all want to minimise costs of WEEE, while
recycling plants and management companies want to maximise profit
potential from the legislation.

'The retailers and manufacturers are lobbying, very successfully, against
the legislation, which at least slows it down for them,' said Jon Godfrey,
managing director of enterprise computing consultant Life Cycle Services.

'They don't want the costs or the effort of being involved in the
end-of-life cycle, as it means a change to their whole business models.'
But this stance puts pressure on other sectors of the IT industry, with
companies putting purchasing decisions on hold until they know what will

ADVERTISEMENT

be required under the UK interpretation of the directive.

'At the moment, no-one really knows how to plan for WEEE. If someone sells
you something and says it's WEEE-compliant, that's based on speculation;
it's the business community that's driving the flow of information, ending
in confusion for clients. It's shambolic,' said Godfrey.

'For recycling companies, it's a disaster. They've made significant
investments because they expect recycled property to move from between 20
and 40 per cent to 70 and 90 per cent; they've borrowed heavily based on
those figures but have no money coming in.'

Caught in this tangle of investment uncertainty are recycling companies,
such as environCom. 'We've been preparing for WEEE for ages and have
facilities and de-manufacturing lines up and running, with another 12 due
to be rolled out, so delays are extremely alarming and potentially
costly,' said Jeff Weeks, technical executive of environCom.

Perhaps not surprisingly, IT manufacturers and retailers welcomed the stay
of execution, with Intellect - the trade association for the UK hi-tech
industry - the British Retail Consortium, and industry recycling
consortium Repic all applauding the pause for thought.

'While the UK hi-tech industry is supportive of measures designed to
protect the environment, we must ensure the legislation is equitable and
workable for all producers,' said John Higgins, Intellect's director
general.

With such statements, it's hard not to conclude that some corners of the
industry believe that if they spend long enough debating the issue, the
problem of WEEE will end up on the political scrapheap.

Some companies have grasped the waste-management nettle, but even
producers that are already effectively WEEE-ready have a vested interest
in negotiations, which inevitably slows progress.

'You can't wait for legislation, so we've been designing for recycling for
years, making sure products are easier to recycle,' said Dr Kirstie
McIntyre, WEEE programme manager at HP UK. 'That's why we want individual
producer responsibility in the legislation; if it's collective
responsibility, there's no benefit from the fact that our products are
easier to recycle than [those from] our competitors.'

With such potential for playground punch-ups, what we need to push WEEE
forward is someone to knock heads together, but Europe remains largely
toothless.

The European Commission threatened last year to take legal action against
the UK (among others) because it had yet to enact the WEEE Directive into
national law, but a source within the DTI said this warning wouldn't force
the government into action.

'It isn't worried about EU fines, as the sums are almost insignificant and
they're outside the political window of the next three or four years, so
won't have much of an impact,' he said.

So if the larger lobby groups have their way, we could still be debating
next year.