Letter submitted by Hewlett-Packard Limited,
Robert Bosch Limited, Xerox UK, Sony UK, Canon, Lanier UK Ltd,
Brother UK Ltd and Take Back & Recycling Manager
ENVIRONMENTAL AUDIT COMMITTEE MEETING WITH
ELLIOT MORLEY MP—HAZARDOUS WASTE AND WASTE POLICY
In response to your press release of 17 September
regarding the Committee's meeting with Elliot Morley on 20 October,
we would like to bring to the attention of the Committee an issue
of concern in relation to the Government's transposition of the
WEEE Directive into UK law.
As representatives of a wide range of electronic
and electrical equipment manufacturers, we have been working closely
with Defra, DTI and a wide range of stakeholders on the transposition
of the Directive. We have been generally pleased with the position
the Government have taken and their commitment to consulting with
industry and other stakeholders during the transposition process.
There are still a number of detailed issues
to be worked out and we will be following these up with the DTI
and Defra in our responses to the current consultation. However,
there is a point of concern that we have with the draft regulations
and explanatory notes (published on 30 July) which is highly significant
and we believe the Committee should raise with the Minister.
As Committee members will be aware, the aim
of the Directive is to oblige producers of electrical and electronic
equipment to meet the costs of recycling their products at the
end of the product's life. In their draft regulations, the Government
is proposing a system of collective responsibility for waste,
attributed on the basis of a company's market share rather than
making each company responsible for their products when they are
actually returned. This will be the case for both historic WEEE
(products put on the market before the Directive came into force)
and all future WEEE. We believe that this proposal is at odds
with the Directive's aim of establishing individual producer responsibility
(IPR) and therefore threatens the realisation of any of the environmental
benefits that can be derived from IPR.
The best way to encourage EEE producers to reduce
the environmental impacts of their products is to create ways
in which they can use eco-design to reduce recovery costs or obtain
a competitive advantage. Individual producer responsibility would
create these conditions, incentivising producers to innovate in
design and technology in order to make their products more reusable,
cheaper to recycle or contain less hazardous materials. If IPR
is not implemented, there will be no incentive for producers to
adopt these eco-design policies. In fact, there will actually
be a disincentive as design changes and material substitution
invariably mean increases in material and production costs for
an individual producer, whilst the benefit of reduced recycling
costs will be shared collectively.
Furthermore, as durability of materials and
production extends the lifetime of a product and therefore reduces
its impact on the environment, under the collective responsibility
system proposed in the draft regulations, the more environmentally
responsible manufacturers would end up subsidising those manufacturers
who take a short-term view and do not invest in ecodesign.
The principle of individual producer responsibility
has already been included in the draft WEEE regulations in Italy,
Spain and Germany. Whilst France is contemplating introducing
a system of collective responsibility, it is not clear that what
is proposed would not leave France open to a challenge for failure
to properly implement the Directive.
While we understand that there are some practical
difficulties inherent in legislating for full individual producer
responsibility immediately, we would encourage the Government
to implement the Directive in a way that clearly contemplates
the development of IPR over time. Without changes to the draft
regulations, the Government risks failing to implement the Directive
as it is intended, and will also penalise large producers while
encouraging those companies that seek to avoid environmental responsibility.
We would be very pleased if members of the Committee
were able to raise this issue with the Minister and convey concerns
to him, as we believe that there is a large degree of consensus
amongst industry on this question.
Dr Kirstie McIntyre, WEEE Programme Manager,
Hewlett-Packard Limited
George Richardson, Environment Manager, Robert
Bosch Limited
Robert Clarke, Environmental Executive, Xerox
UK
Paul Roberts, Equipment Operations & Recycling
Manager, Xerox UK
Bill Vestey, Director of Corporate Communications,
Sony UK
Surrie Everett-Pascoe, Environment Manager,
Canon
Keith Nobbs, Environmental Manager, Lanier UK
Ltd
Louise Marshall, Corporate Risk Manager, Brother
UK Ltd
Jean Cox-Kearns, Senior EMEA Take Back &
Recycling Manager
October 2004
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