Businesses have responded well to the WEEE Regulations, but when it comes to  complying, how do you know you are getting the best deal? Recolight's commercial manager, Peter Lees, provides some insight into the regulations and, suggests what customers should look out for when assessing potential suppliers

The majority of businesses are now fully prepared to deal with the WEEE Regulations, and with nearly 2m tonnes of waste electrical and electronic equipment produced in the UK every year, good progress is being made in removing WEEE from landfill. In lighting in particular, gas discharge lamps account for 1% of tonnage placed on the market but 20% of what comes back for recycling, which is an exceptional achievement.

Awareness of the regulations is also increasing as our recent survey of 1,000 smaller electrical contractors demonstrated.  According to our research, 94% were aware of the WEEE regulations, which compares favourably with a previous Netregs (www.netregs.gov.uk ) survey which found only 12% of SMEs could name the regulations.

The WEEE Regulations affect each party in the supply chain and, as well as knowing what your obligations are, it is just as important to know what your options are. Businesses paying for recycling could save a significant amount of money, at the same time benefitting the environment, by sourcing the best recycling option. Ensuring your product manufacturer is part of a credible compliance scheme is the first step towards making the recycling process as simple and effective as possible.

Because the recycling of WEEE is ultimately the producers' responsibility it is the producers who finance the collection and recycling through the compliance scheme to which they belong.

So what are the features of a good scheme?
Cost is an important factor for all businesses, but increasingly compliance schemes are being judged on whether they provide good value in terms of the infrastructure and support they provide. 

How does a compliance scheme deal with all the different types of customers?  Does it have a recycling network in place? How quickly does it respond to questions and queries?  Does it really understand the specialist products that are being dealt with?

One important feature to look for in a scheme is knowledge and understanding of the often specialist products, particularly in lighting, that are required to be recycled.

Recolight, for example, is a scheme that specialises in lamp recycling. We will soon be offering battery recycling at some of our sites, but our background and specialist knowledge is in lamp recycling.

Recolight members account for approximately 85% of the total lamps put on the market, and we provide a free collection and recycling service for any of our producer members' lamps. 

At Recolight we have a network of over 1,000 lamp collection points, of which roughly a third are open sites which anyone can use (by prior arrangement). Joining the network is simple and free for businesses that have more than 1,000 lamps a month and for businesses that have smaller volumes of lamps, we can also provide a free ‘one-off' collection service. For our members and their customers increasing the number of recycling sites will help to ensure recycling is even more convenient and easy.

You may think it is the Environment Agency and government's problem if recycling rates don't improve, but my own view is that if we do not work together in industry to make WEEE a success and reduce waste levels, then further regulation will follow. Also increased collection rates will, in the long term, lower recycling charges for compliance scheme members and their customers.

Finally customers should ask what other support is available via the compliance scheme. Does it provide a telephone advice line? Is it involved in other industry issues such as curbing the number of potential ‘free riders' who are not processing WEEE waste in an appropriate way?

Customers should be increasingly asking these questions of potential suppliers, to ensure they will benefit from the best recycling option for their WEEE.

In the early days of WEEE the question from customers was simply ‘are you WEEE compliant'.  But now, with the regulations firmly in place, customers are becoming more savvy. They will increasingly be looking for suppliers to work with responsible compliance schemes that are raising recycling rates and offering good levels of support.

Reviewing the options and specifying a responsible and effective WEEE compliance scheme is likely to become an increasingly important part of any buying process, and essential in helping to keep WEEE out of landfill.