Tough new European legislation on electronic waste that was
due to become law in mid-August has been delayed, the Department of
Trade & Industry has admitted.
The European Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE)
Directive demands that all electronic waste be either recycled or
disposed of safely, instead of being buried in landfill sites.
The directive was supposed to have been adopted into UK law next
month, after a final consultation on recycling guidelines with the
IT industry.
But this consultation has not begun yet and when it does the
process will last up to three months. A DTI spokeswoman said, "The
directive will not be transposed into UK law until the autumn. The
consultation on the guidelines will start in the next two
weeks."
The delay has left IT managers unsure of their legal
responsibilities regarding the disposal of electronic equipment,
although some manufacturers are introducing recycling
schemes.
Kirstie McIntyre, WEEE programme manager at Hewlett-Packard, said
of the delay, "Realistically, there will not be any law to work to
until the end of the year."
However, HP is already working with what it expects to be the final
guidelines and is offering to take away old products for new. "If a
company now buys 100 PCs, we will take back 100 old ones if they
are not wanted, and it doesn't matter what make they are," said
McIntyre.
Hans-Georg Riegler-Rittner, director of resource and waste
management at Fujitsu Siemens Computers (FSC), said, "As the laws
regarding the waste directive have not been formally put into place
in the majority of European countries, there is still room for FSC
to decide on the best strategy for managing the directive across
Europe.
"At the moment, FSC is taking the time to talk to potential
European partners and is not going to make any definite decisions
on how to progress."