OUR RESPONSIBLE RECYCLING COMPETITION SPARKS NATIONWIDE INTEREST!

September 15, 2014Uncategorizedrepic

REPIC’s first ever consumer-facing campaign has been hailed a great success with some 400 people taking part nationwide. Launched to mark the leading WEEE producer compliance scheme’s 10^th anniversary, the competition headed the next phase in raising awareness of responsible recycling.

In total 15 regions across the UK benefited from the REPIC community prize pot, which saw £1,000 given away to each good cause – ranging from a local school to various community groups. Widely supported by REPIC’s local authority partners, the competition was promoted through their websites and social media platforms, as well as being publicised in local papers and on the radio.

With many community groups entering the competition the panel of independent judges were tasked with selecting just 15 deserving causes. The final winners included:

• Choppington Disability Group in Stakeford, Northumberland, who requested tablets for members and canteen equipment
• Fusion Youth Theatre in Grimsby who required equipment for drama productions
• Greenhill Primary School in REPIC’s hometown of Bury, with a request of a fridge to store school milk, along with an iPad for the school council
• Nairn Academy who forwarded entries for 200 pupils expressing why they would benefit from a water fountain
• Pembroke 21C Community Association who provides a focus for activities for the community
• The Community Resources Network Scotland who support a network of over 86 community based organisations across Scotland to reuse and recycle materials
• Earth Time, which provides environmental and outdoor education for children in families in moray and beyond
• East Lothian based youth centre, Recharge
• Bishop Briggs Academy in East Dunbartonshire
• Perranarworthal Pre-school in Cornwall
• Rising Young Stars, an Angus based local Community Youth Theatre group for children aged between 5 – 18
• The 193B Edinburgh Guides
• Funky Families, a community group for families in a deprived area of Norwich
• Moorfoot Primary School in Midlothian who will be getting a selection of ipads

One of the delighted winners, Rebecca Collins, Leader of Funky Families commented: “The competition has been an amazing morale booster for our group. It has given us all the drive and tools to fundraise so we can ensure our group continues to be a success. We are raising funds for trips next year through our Halloween and Christmas Ball productions and our new electrical products comprising of: DJ tech portable PA system, Pro sound twin speakers stand, a laptop, amongst other electrical equipment will really help produce the best quality production we can. We are all so very grateful and excited for the future thanks to the REPIC 10K competition.”

Dr Philip Morton, CEO of REPIC says: “It’s been fantastic to see so much engagement and to read through the varied applications. It’s also great to note that the highest referrals from the competition came through the LAs and we’re delighted with the help we have received from them. We want to express our gratitude and thank everyone who has supported the initiative.”

WEEE COMMUNITY PRIZE POT SET TO BRING A SPARK TO SCHOOLS AND COMMUNITY GROUPS

April 30, 2014Uncategorizedrepic

Local schools, community groups and good causes – such as not-for-profit organisations and registered charities – across England, Wales and Scotland are being given the chance to win £1000’s worth of new electrical products as part of a new responsible recycling initiative. The community prize pot has been put forward by not-for-profit Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) recycling scheme, REPIC, in partnership with a number of local councils.

WEEE is one of the fastest growing waste streams in the UK and REPIC is a major force behind WEEE recycling – successfully financing the collection, treatment and recycling of around half of the UK’s used electrical items. This year REPIC is celebrating 10 years of successful recycling and the giveaway prize pot is the organisation’s way of giving something back to deserving local communities, as well as encouraging further responsible recycling.

Any local school, community group, or good cause can put itself forward for the electrical goodies – or they can nominate another cause. They simply need to say: What new electrical product/products do you need – up to the value of £1,000 – and why? Followed by answering: “What does WEEE stand for?”

Dr Philip Morton, CEO of REPIC says: “We’re proud to celebrate 10 years of successful WEEE recycling and we wanted to mark it with a worthwhile community initiative and hopefully encourage further responsible recycling of electricals at the same time. It’s great to team up with local authorities up and down the country and we’re looking forward to receiving the entries – whether the request is for something simple like a microwave – or whether it’s a higher value purchase such as washing machine or laptop.”

All eligible applications that answer the question correctly will be considered. Full details and terms and conditions are available on REPIC’s Responsible Recycling microsite www.responsible-recycling.co.uk. The closing date for applications is 27^th June 2014.

New WEEE regulations allow greater choice for councils

December 25, 2013Uncategorized

The comments emerged at a roundtable discussion, hosted by REPIC in London this week, as the industry prepares for the introduction of the new regulations in January 2014. All stakeholders present expressed their intent to work together to enable a smooth transition.

The session was attended by representatives from REPIC, Recolight and ERP, as well as the National Association of Waste Disposal Officers (NAWDO), Viridor and the Environmental Services Association (ESA), HP and Panasonic on behalf of the producer community, the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and chaired by Peter Jones director of consultancy Ecolateral.

Under the new system of which details were published earlier this month, local authorities will be given the option to directly treat individual WEEE streams – for which they will be able to retain any revenue that may be received as a result. Producer compliance schemes will be required to treat streams which the council opts not to manage, regardless of whether they need the tonnage to meet collection obligations.

Flexibility

Speaking at the roundtable, BIS official Graeme Vickery said that the measure was intended to give local authorities ‘greater flexibility’ over how they choose to treat WEEE in the future.

‘What we are doing is giving local authorities a choice they don’t have at the moment. This introduces a degree of flexibility into the system and if the economics of local authorities self treating WEEE stack up then they can do it.’

Graeme Vickery, BIS

He said: “What we are doing is giving local authorities a choice they don’t have at the moment. This introduces a degree of flexibility into the system and if the economics of local authorities self treating WEEE stack up then they can do it.”

Hannah Rogers, senior contracts officer for West Sussex county council and a member of NAWDO, said that councils viewed the move as ‘positive’ but added that there are still ‘a number of unknowns’ that might prevent the majority of local authorities from opting to self treat WEEE from January 2014.

And, she commented that a ‘one size fits all approach’ would not be practical for the majority of local authorities, due to vast differences in contractual arrangements currently in place between councils, contractors and compliance schemes across the country.

Phil Morton, chief executive of REPIC added that producers supported this formalisation of pre-existing informal agreements as well as welcoming the freedom of choice it gave to Local Authorities.

Self treatment

He also claimed that local authorities opting to self-treat could still do this via their waste management contractor or compliance scheme which would help to ensure that material that may have escaped the WEEE system previously could be counted towards capture rates in future.

He said: “If producers thought that they could attract all the material that had value they would welcome that but that is not practical. The sensible approach is to say that streams that are self propelling should be allowed to carry on as long as the WEEE is properly treated and counted in the UK Member State target.”

Discussion also centered on the need for a ‘robust’ compliance fee to be set which would ensure that compliance schemes are incentivised to meet their collection targets. Under the plans put forward by the government, compliance schemes will be given a tonnage target in proportion to the total market share of their members during the previous year.

Compliance fee

Schemes collecting less than their target will have the option to pay a ‘compliance fee’ per tonne of WEEE for the shortfall as an alternative means of compliance or face sanctions for non-compliance, while those with a surplus of WEEE will be required to finance the excess or retain the income.

It is thought that the system would encourage schemes to collect WEEE in proportion to the amount they are obligated to secure on behalf of their members, and eliminate the trade in evidence which is said to have increased the cost for businesses to comply with the regulations.

According to Simon Eves, general manager of environmental affairs at electronics producer Panasonic, ensuring that the compliance fee is calculated at the appropriate level will be key to ensuring that the new system works.

He said: “The compliance fee is a crucial aspect of this option to work properly. If the fee is set too low it will create certain problems and will not achieve the aims that it sets out to do.”

A methodology which will determine how the compliance fee is set to be produced, with compliance schemes to be informed how much they will be liable to pay if the target is missed- which will be changed from year to year.

Methodology

The panel was agreed that setting the fee at the appropriate level was important to making the system work and agreed that it needed to be set using a transparent methodology, possibly on a scale reflecting of the deviation from the individual PCS collection target.

Scott Butler, managing director of compliance scheme ERP UK, commented that if the new system works properly, all schemes will collect enough WEEE to enable them to meet their targets, without the need for a compliance fee to be charged.

He said: “If the system is successful there should not be any fee. Local authorities should be getting the support they need and if we are doing our jobs correctly there should be no money in that pot at the end of the year.”

Delegates also debated whether the system would encourage a greater level of reuse of used electrical goods than is currently seen in the UK, and how stakeholders could work together to encourage greater levels of WEEE collection.

The government has given stakeholders until November 1 to comment on the proposed changes – with further guidance set to be published in the coming months.

Draft Regs published 11th Oct to reduce compliance costs for business

November 27, 2013Uncategorized

The measures were announced by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) in its response to the consultation on bringing the requirements of the recast WEEE Directive into UK law and to address concerns from producers that the cost of compliance with the regulations did not reflect the true cost of recycling.

Draft regulations, which lay the foundations for the new regime, were published October 11th, with stakeholders given until November 1 to provide further comment. A target date of January 1st 2014, has been set for the new system to come into force.

Compulsory

Under the proposed new system, it will be compulsory for all producers will be required to join a producer compliance scheme, unless they fall below the de minimis threshold which exempts producers placing less than five tonnes onto the market per year.

Each compliance scheme will be given a tonnage target by category of EEE placed onto the market in proportion to the UK target and the total market share of their members during the previous year.

Trading of evidence, which producers claim was leading to an increase in the overall cost that they were paying for compliance with the regulations, will be outlawed under the new system.

Finance

Over-collecting schemes will be required to finance the excess or retain the income, and under-collecting schemes will have to pay a ‘compliance fee’ per tonne of WEEE it has been unable to collect or face sanctions for non-compliance.

Waste electrical equipment: under the new system the trading of evidence will be outlawed

Local authorities will also be given greater freedom to choose WEEE streams that they would like to manage and treat directly, and will absorb any revenue or cost for handling the waste.

Business Minister Michael Fallon said that the proposals will help to reduce costs for businesses.

He added: “The regulations published today will reduce the cost of compliance for business, bring greater flexibility for local authorities and ensure we meet the requirements of the revised European legislation. The changes to the household WEEE collection system will put us on track to meet the higher collection targets agreed in Europe and drive up the quality of treatment in the UK.”

Four proposed options for the future of the WEEE system were outlined in the government’s consultation, which originally launched in April. These included:

• Option 1: No change and continue with the current system;
• Option 2: Introduce a ‘National Producer Compliance Scheme’, instead of competition between current compliance schemes;
• Option 3: Setting targets for compliance schemes along with a ‘compliance fee’ if these are not met, instead of the trading of WEEE evidence data between collection schemes, and;
• Option 4: Matching collection sites to compliance schemes.

Reactions

Reactions from the sector are expected next week as the implications of the changes filter through.

While there is likely to be strong support in some quarters for the BIS decision, alternative views have been expressed by some compliance schemes. These have argued that the current system only needed minor adjustments and questioned the need for structural changes to the regime.