Wallström dilutes electrical recycling plan

Date: 18/05/2000

By Peter Chapman

ENVIRONMENT Commissioner Margot Wallström will unveil watered-down proposals later this month for new legislation to force electronics and electrical firms to recycle millions of tonnes of old equipment.

Under the plan, member states would be required to ensure that consumers can return all products to manufacturers for recycling at the end of their life. The move reflects mounting concern over growing levels of scrap equipment, which accounted for a massive 6 million tonnes of waste in 1998 alone and are set to double by 2010 if no action is taken.

Wallström will propose setting ambitious targets for recycling between 70% and 90% of collected equipment by 2006, to be followed by even tougher targets for recycling, recovery and re-use beyond 2008. But her officials admit the proposal has been diluted in a bid to win support from industry groups and Enterprise Commissioner Erkki Liikanen's officials, who recently tabled rival plans to limit the environmental impact of electrical and electronic kit.

Critics claimed previous proposals drawn up by Wallström's predecessor Ritt Bjerregaard were too ambitious and could have prompted World Trade Organisation action by the Union's trading partners. "The proposals would achieve a very high level of environmental protection, but we had to compromise," said a Wallström aide.

Key concessions in the latest proposal include plans to give firms until 2008 to phase out the use of harmful chemicals including lead, mercury and certain chromium compounds. This follows protests over earlier plans to impose a ban by 2004 which, according to the industry, would have been "absolutely impossible" to implement.

The draft rules governing how firms should set up and finance recycling schemes for both 'historical' and future waste - equipment put onto the market before and after the directive enters into force - from private households have also been watered down.

Under the new plan, companies would have five years after the legislation is adopted to set up and contribute to collective schemes to pay for the recycling of 'historical' waste through a special "visible fee". This would be added to the cost of new products and could be charged for ten years.

Wallström will also propose making manufacturers responsible for recycling all their 'own-brand' goods sold after the legislation enters into force. This is in line with demands made by a coalition of leading electrical goods manufacturers which argue that it would give firms an incentive to design'eco-friendly' products.

The move has, however, been attacked by 11 major household appliance manufacturers which claim that the waste problem can be better addressed immediately through collective 'not for profit' take-back schemes.

Environment Commissioner Margot Wallström is to unveil watered-down proposals for new legislation to force electronics and electrical firms to recycle millions of tonnes of old equipment.