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2007-02-13
SME & WEEE
1: Small business in particular is always concerned about anything that raises their costs, or increases paperwork. How do you think SMEs will cope with the new WEEE regulations that come into force this year?
When discussing these regulations with SMEs, it is important to draw a distinction between small ?producers? and small ?consumers?. This distinction is important because a prime objective is to begin to shift cost responsibility away from consumers and onto producers ? based on the polluter pays principle, essentially holding manufacturers and importers responsible for the recycling costs of the products that they put on the market.
So to your question: If the SME manufactures, imports or rebrands electrical and electronic products for resale in the UK then the responsibilities, administrative burden and costs will increase. On the other hand, if the SME is a buyer or consumer of the products, they should expect that these regulations will alleviate existing cost responsibilities.
In the immediate term, the regulations have had a massive impact on the waste management industry and costs have already fallen dramatically. The new producer compliance schemes are far more coordinated and aggressive in their negotiations than the local authorities or SME businesses could ever have been. The challenge for consumers is to ensure that they see these benefits.
Producers are turning cost into new profits and simultaneously misleading their customers into thinking costs are increasing. Government is compounding this perception by talking about layering new environmental taxes on top of everything. Net result is that a false economy is being created in place of the intended benefit, i.e. to move the cost responsibility away from consumers and hold producers responsible.
2: The WEEE regulations are one of the first to actually compel businesses to take a more environmentally friendly approach to disposing of their waste. Do you think these regulations will be one of many that will come into force over the next few years?
Again the distinction between producers and consumers is important here. Producers are expected to modify their bad behaviour in response to increased cost responsibility for hazardous and wasteful product design. The WEEE regulations are just one part of a set of new laws that force this.
However, it is important to recognise that consumers have held these responsibilities for some time. Under the Duty of Care regime, consumers are currently the default holders of these cost and administration responsibilities. Under Environmental Protection Regulations, this has been the case since 1991. Indeed, in the case of hazardous waste, e.g. CRT monitors and fluorescent tubes, separate regulations actually pose even more stringent controls on the consumer as a producer of waste.
The Duty of Care regime does not go away, in fact it is currently under review and the standards of behaviour expected of consumers will increase even further. The WEEE regulations in fact add greater specificity to the Duty of Care on businesses in particular.
What changes is that greater clarity is brought into the equation in respect of who the ?approved? carriers, and ?approved? facilities are and how a business might identify them. With older equipment consumer SMEs may still retain full cost responsibility for disposal and recycling. Since 13 August 2005, in the case of new, or replacement equipment, some of that end-of-life financial burden is lifted off the consumer and placed on the shoulders of the supplying producer. However, that relief is only available if the consumer meets his end of the bargain i.e. uses properly licensed operators etc.
Otherwise, the consumer is effectively guilty of corporate fly-tipping? and environmental ASBOs will shortly be introduced as a further disincentive to such behaviours.
3: How would you advise an SME to prepare to comply with the WEEE regulations?
In all cases, understand your Duty of Care obligations. Compliance requires understanding the difference between the hazardous waste that you generate and the non-hazardous waste. Different rules apply to each and appropriate handling, transportation and treatment are unique. Understand that each site should by default be registered under Hazardous Waste Regulations, and that only on the basis of small scale, will an exemption apply. Where exemptions don?t apply, costs and admin responsibilities need to be respected.
Depending on the nature of the SME business, the following additional obligations may also apply:
Manufacturer / Importer / re-Brander ? Must select and join a Producer Compliance Scheme by the end of March. PCS organisations are in the process of being authorised at the moment. The PCS will handle negotiations with the Environment Agency on the SME?s behalf, and secure and supply a WEEE Registration Number (like a VAT number) so that producers can signal to customers that they are operating responsibly.
Retailer to householders ? Must chose whether to offer a WEEE take-back service free of charge to their customers, or alternately join the national Distributor Takeback Scheme (DTS) operated on behalf of the UK Government by Valpak. Further, the seller has an informational and educational responsibility whether the sale is via mail order, web or high street store.
If neither of the above apply, e.g. retailer to business customers, then there may be a significant new business opportunity to take green solutions to your customer base, without being tainted as part of the problem.
If both of the above apply, e.g. manufacture and sell to household consumers, then the administrative burden and costs will be high, as each obligation needs to be fully met on both sides of the fence. Get some help to ensure that you are minimising the impact to your business.
4: Do you think that the WEEE regulations will make SMEs more aware when they are upgrading the electrical products they use in their business? Will legislation like this make business generally more green?
For consumers, recycling costs should fall. They have already fallen dramatically for producers, it is up to consumers to demand their share and for producers to pass these benefits down the chain.
Components supplied to extend the life of an appliance are exempt from the WEEE Directive. Second-life equipment does not incur any new producer obligation on resellers. In both cases, SME?s involved in the active support and promotion of reuse may well find life easier than those that insist on selling new and highly disposable products.
Resellers will not want to purchase from producers that can?t supply them with a WEEE Registration Number as this indicates an irresponsible approach to selling in the UK.
The costs of producing and managing hazardous products over their lifespan will increase dramatically, and thus more environmentally friendly substitutes will become more attractive to consumers. A good example of where this is already happening is in the increased sale of LCD televisions and monitors over the older, vastly more hazardous CRT sets.
From a business and environmental perspective all of these outcomes are intended and valuable consequences of the regulations.
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