ISME hits out on electrical goods directive

The business organisation ISME has spoken out against the new electrical waste directive which begins life tomorrow, saying that it will hike up costs for small manufactures and retailers of electrical goods.

The Waster Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive requires old electronic and certain battery operated products to be disposed of in an environmentally friendly manner by retailers and producers.

ISME pointed out that small companies involved will be faced with increased costs in recycling ,administrative, staff, transport, and storage. ISME added that much of the recycling will need to be exported as we do not have adequate facilities in Ireland.

ISME Chief Executive Mark Fielding said that while the organisation is supportive of recycling waste, the implementation of the WEEE legislation is rushed, badly planned and will cause more problems than it was supposed to address.

He said that Ireland and Greece are the only Countries in the EU currently implementing it,  even though we have the worst facilities for recycling, with only 62 civic amenity centres.

He added that Irish small businesses will be at a disadvantage against companies in Northern Ireland, who are not currently implementing the directive.  

Recycling electrical goods could be worth _40 million per annum to the waste industry every year.

Recycling firm Greenstar said the scheme could add millions to the value of the sector. Householders will further benefit by being able to take electrical items to civic amenity sites where councils will dispose of them for free.

Shops have threatened to place recycling charges on goods they sell. On large household goods such as refrigerators, consumers could pay up to E40 per item, E20 for large televisions, _5 for vacuum cleaners and E1 for small items like radio alarm clocks.

Old goods can then be disposed of at stores and recycling centres.

Dell Ireland today provided advice to businesses that are now required to comply with the EU directive.

Dell said up until now many businesses may not have been aware or may not have considered issues such as data destruction or re-sale value.

The company said it can offer businesses a solution through its Asset Recovery Services (ARS), launched last year. Dell now plans to offer WEEE-compliant ARS solutions to business customers which will offer options for data management and programme managed logistics.

The existing ARS programme - which will continue to operate following the introduction of the WEEE Directive - allows business customers to recycle or re-sell used computer equipment of any brand.

For value recovery, Dell will arrange the shipping and testing of any surplus computer equipment for any Ireland business. If it meets functional requirements, it is resold , with value from the sale returned to the customer.

For recycling, equipment that has no resale value (equipment over three years old or under a certain specification) is collected and delivered to Dell's recycling partners, who provide environmentally sound management of the computer hardware recycling process.