Correspondence from Department for Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs to Dixons Group plc, 7 September 2001
NEW REGULATIONS
AFFECTING THE
COLLECTION AND
MANAGEMENT OF
END OF
LIFE EQUIPMENT
Thank you for your letter of 10 August 2001,
to Michael Meacher, seeking guidance on the review of the Special
Waste Regulations and the likely impact of the EC Regulation on
ozone depleting substances on your take-back scheme for large
white goods. Please accept my apologies for the delay in our response.
However, we are actively working on these issues at the current
time and I wanted to provide you with as full a response as possible.
Review of the Special Waste Regulations
As from 1 January 2002, waste electrical appliances
containing hazardous components, including CFCs and HCFCs will
be added to the European Hazardous Waste List. This list defines
the scope of the Hazardous Waste Directive (91/689/EEC), which
is transposed in Great Britain by the Special Waste Regulations
1996. We are currently in the process of reviewing the Special
Waste Regulations with the aim of improving environmental protection,
while minimising the administrative burden. We shall be consulting
further on this review shortly and revised legislation for hazardous
waste is expected to come into force in Spring 2002. The new Hazardous
Waste List will come into effect in the UK at the same time as
these regulations.
As a result of infraction proceedings that have
been brought against the UK by the European Commission, we are
also committed to reviewing the existing waste management licensing
exemptions insofar as they relate to hazardous waste. The storage
of returned goods that are waste, including special waste, is
subject to an exemption from the waste management licensing regulations
(exemption number 28).
Member States may provide licensing exemptions
for establishments or undertakings which recover hazardous waste,
as long as they adopt general rules listing the type and quantities
of waste and lay down specific requirements for carrying out the
recovery operation. Under Article 3(4) of the HWD Member States
are obliged to inform the Commission of any intention to use such
exemptions and must obtain the agreement of Member States.
We aim to formally notify the Commission of
various hazardous waste exemptions, including some relating to
newly hazardous waste, early in 2002. A consultation paper setting
out these exemptions in draft will be issued this autumn. We are
currently considering the handling of exemption 28. However, we
shall need to satisfy the Commission that the safeguards provided
by the exemption are adequate. In order to do this, we may need
to redraft the exemption rather more narrowly. In doing so, we
shall, of course, bear in mind the desirability of preserving
existing take-back arrangements in the run up to implementation
of the WEEE Directive.
In June the Commission confirmed that Article
16(2) of the EC Regulation 2037/2000 on substances that deplete
the ozone layer does apply to ODS in insulation foams. DEFRA and
DTI recently met with a range of potential investors, retailers
and other interested parties to consider these issues and to move
towards a workable solution. We are keen to ensure that stakeholders
are kept informed of our progress with these issues. In view of
this, we shall be arranging a further meeting, through the British
Retail Consortium, to discuss the issues surrounding exemption
28.
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