Channel warned of waste directive risks
Channel warned of waste directive risks
Channel players could be stung by hidden risks and costs when the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive is implemented, risk and insurance specialist Marsh has warned.
Tony Diamond, senior vice-president at Marsh, said: "We are seeing only a handful of businesses with enough foresight to invest heavily in understanding the implications of WEEE. Businesses need to have a plan to transition smoothly towards new work processes and structures."
Over the past 18 months Marsh has been talking to insurers about the directive to encourage them to provide WEEE-related insurance.
"The range of potential threats that a business faces from WEEE stretches from the risk of getting the recycling cost wrong to more complex issues of reversing the supply chain, managing a competitors' funding obligations, changing consumer behaviour patterns, and materials and technology risks," said Diamond.
Kevin Riches, managing director at IT recycling company Technical Asset Management, told CRN: "The impact of WEEE is enormous. There is focus on how to collect and recycle waste, but everyone is missing the financial implications. A company's payment for WEEE liability has to be accounted for. An insurance scheme is certainly needed."
Keith Warburton, executive director of the PC Association (PCA) said: "The PCA intends to offer an insurance scheme. All producers should share the responsibility via collective financing schemes. If one member of the collective goes out of business, then the burden of paying for the WEEE from that producer's products will fall upon all the other members of the scheme."