Electronic waste plan under fire

Date: 15/06/2000

LEADING manufacturers of electrical and electronic products claim consumers would lose out under draft recycling rules unveiled by Environment Commissioner Margot Wallström this week.

The proposed rules would require member states to ensure that consumers could hand in all their used goods for recycling, with manufacturers footing the bill for both future products and 'historical waste' from those already on the market five years after the law had been adopted.

But domestic appliances lobby group CECED, which wants to set up 'collective, not-for-profit recyling schemes', claims that consumers would ultimately be hit by this because it would stop firms charging a 'visible fee' to pay for the costs involved. It says companies would instead have to 'internalise their costs', meaning customers would end up paying "far more than necessary".

CECED also described the proposed five-year delay before the cost burden would fall on producers as "meaningless in practice", claiming that firms would end up paying for recycling from "day one".

But Swedish white goods giant Electrolux welcomed Wallström's plan, arguing that it would make it more difficult for member states to develop potentially conflicting national schemes.

However, the firm, which has campaigned for companies to be given the right to take individual responsibility for financing the recycling of their products, is calling for specific reference to be made to this in the directive. It says savings made developing eco-friendly goods would be passed on to the consumer, giving firms a competitive edge.

"The directive does not rule this out, but the wording could be clearer," said EU affairs manager Viktor Sundberg. "The Parliament and Council now have to consider how eco-design becomes part of the competition between firms."

Leading manufacturers of electrical and electronic products claim consumers would lose out under draft recycling rules unveiled by Environment Commissioner Margot Wallström.