The incessantly delayed Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive is finally back on schedule with full producer responsibility set to start on 1 July next year.
Derek Morgan, compliance consultant at CKS Group, told CRN: “I met with the Department of Trade and Industry [DTI] last week. The timetable set by the government in July appears to be intact. This seems to be realistic for the regulations to become law because the DTI intends to lay the regulations in front of parliament by 12 December, which is the cut-off point for the current WEEE timetable.”
Mike Lawrence, managing director of VAR Bentpenny, said: “This is all news to me. We’ve heard nothing from the DTI on the implementation of WEEE. However, I cannot see how there will be the necessary infrastructure in place to deal with the treatment of all this WEEE.”
Mike Dinsdale, communications director at vendor Brother, said: “We were ready to go on 1 January this year because that was the original target before it was delayed. We still went ahead with our plans and carried out a three-month take-back trial just to experience how it would work when the regulations finally come in.”
According to Morgan, VARs must decide whether they will sign up to the national distribution take-back scheme or offer a take-back scheme themselves to customers.
“Up until a fortnight ago, I would have advised VARs to sign up to the national take-back scheme because it was not viable for them to offer it,” he said. “The regulations have been adjusted now and non-hazardous and hazardous WEEE will no longer be lumped together, so VARs won’t have to pay a high fee to cover any potential hazardous waste.”
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