How Dutch WEEE procedures can help the UK
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The UK has recently reached the first anniversary of the implementation of the EU’s WEEE – or waste electrical and electronics - directive. Yet, it has not all been plain sailing for Britain, which is one of the last EU states to enact the law, with many across both the business-to-business and consumer arenas still unaware of the existence of the legislation and what it is trying to achieve in terms of a reduction in the use of landfill.
The Dutch experience
Many may ask what is the relevance of considering the Dutch experience when looking at implementation of the WEEE Directive in the UK? Indeed, the Netherlands is a far smaller country than the UK, so the two should be viewed as separate entities. What we have seen in Europe is that the multiplying factor, in terms of size of population and amount of WEEE produced, is not straightforward. However, the UK, like the Netherlands, does have dense areas of high population, such as the London, Birmingham, Manchester and Merseyside conurbations, so there are useful parallels that can be drawn with the Netherlands. It is therefore a model well worth studying, not least because it took on the WEEE legislation with very few examples to follow in Europe - and has gone through that sometimes painful journey of education that inevitably happens at the introduction of a new piece of legislation and creation of a new marketplace – in this case for recovered metals and other components from WEEE.
The Sims Group’s waste electrical expertise grew out of its purchase in 2004 of Mirec, the Eindhoven-based recycling subsidiary of Philips – so the organization understands the concerns of a WEEE producer, such as Philips, and a WEEE recycling services provider. Philips is a €3 billion global organization employing over 6000 people across the world that recycles almost 15 million tonnes of recycled material per year. The business has 230 operations globally, including eight facilities in Europe that are dedicated to the recycling of electronic waste.
An industry perspective: early beginnings in the Netherlands
Having seen both sides of the debate, it was only natural that Sims Mirec would play a part in developing WEEE legislation in the Netherlands. However, it is important to turn the clock back all the way to the beginning of the process, which was driven by key players in the Netherlands’ environmental ministry. They had a vision to position the country, along with Germany, as a guiding European nation in terms of producer responsibility. The idea was to make manufacturers in the Netherlands responsible for all electronic waste in the Dutch market.
 Collected WEEE at Sims Eindhoven recycling plant |
The ministry set-up a central task force to look into the matter, while the electronics and waste organizations got together during the development stages to form the Synrec foundation - based on a consensus model and a philosophy of synergy and reuse of consumer products - a move that was greeted enthusiastically by Dutch central government.
As negotiations developed, so it became obvious that there were many other interested parties and lobby groups whose opinions were important to heed. Indeed, the ministry had to speak to all of the municipalities (over 600 of them), the reuse charities that were sponsored by the municipalities, plus environmental lobbyists and academics. In this way, an even wider consensus group was formulated.
Once consultation had been undertaken, the ministry withdrew from discussions and wrote the first draft of the legislation, with the main responsibility for WEEE lying with the producers – a definition that would include importers for the purposes of the legislation. From there, it left it up to the electronics sector to formulate a solution as to how that responsibility would be met - and asked for an answer within six months.
The recycling industry was keen to see what would come out of this six month period. Recycling companies had little control at this point and just had to keep contact with the leading producers and importers, in order to keep up to speed with developments.
Pilot projects were established
During this quiet period, a number of pilot projects and trials were instigated at a grass roots level, including recovery of fridges, small appliances and small televisions. These initiatives were, in the main, instigated to see if the logistics of the schemes would work in practice, and to see how the consumer behaved in response to the systems. Generally, the trials worked and the response of the population was extremely positive.
 Process of separating reduced-size materials |
The trials meant that information was now available to predict the total disposal behaviour of the nation from a WEEE perspective. One of the findings highlighted was that approximately 50% of the theoretical amounts entering the market were actually handed in for recycling, giving a good indication of what would happen once legislation was rolled out across the country.
The public responded positively to the collection systems and the trials showed there was a real need for the collection services. In addition, the tests meant that useful information in terms of costing and pricing structures was now available. Such pre-legislation schemes have not taken place in the UK, resulting in a lack of hard information to help with the drafting of legislation and probably as a result the country has suffered from this since the introduction of the directive in July 2007.
For Sims in the Netherlands, the trials gave it the ability to make its own projections in terms of future business levels, as well as a model upon which to base any future tendering applications. So, the educational process that the Netherlands went through, pre-legislation, was hugely important in helping the recycling sector to learn what was likely to happen in the future. Lessons were learnt and progress was made with an element of confidence. Unfortunately, such lessons were not learnt in the UK.
Once the legislation came into play in the Netherlands, the marketplace took a while to settle down – and we are seeing the effects of this in the UK marketplace at the moment.
Two compliance schemes emerged
In terms of the compliance scheme set-up in the Netherlands, initially two organisations came up with a prospective solution. One was a group of brown and white goods manufacturers, while the other was a conglomerate of IT and telecommunications companies, with both opting to create a collective compliance scheme for their own areas.
 Monitors ready to be processed through the WEEE operation |
Both were driven by their respective trade organizations which provided the right platform for collective decisions and professional support. The sector organization FME created a compliance scheme called NVMP, which started the tender procedure with recyclers, based on what was learnt from the trials. The other organization, Nederland ICT, created their ICT-Milieu. They joined forces and dealt with some 600 municipalities together, which greatly improved the process.
In terms of working practices and the way that the supply chain was to work in the Netherlands, NVMP and ICT-Milieu agreed that their responsibilities would only start at the point of regional hubs, into which the municipal yards fed their WEEE, rather than taking over the product at every municipal yard, civic amenity site, or green point. It was up to each local authority to decide how they would get it to the regional hub. In addition, it was agreed that retail outlets could employ both schemes to pick up crates or pallets of WEEE directly from shops or warehouses.
Even after a long period of preparation, when legislation actually arrives there is rarely enough of a logistics infrastructure prepared – this was reflected in the lack of assets such as pallets, skips and containers. A nation that is building an entirely new waste stream and marketplace has to have its own infrastructure and needs back-up to be able cope.
We did see in the Netherlands that improvements in transport efficiency only were achieved after a number of years. Developing a smooth-running transportation ‘milkround’ system for the collection of consumer WEEE is not easily done using theory alone - a lesson learnt by other EU states in subsequent years.
What has happened in the UK
Therefore, the first shake-up of the marketplace always happens at the rollout stage and we are seeing that in the UK at the moment. Across Britain, prices for the service elements of making the WEEE Directive work are going down, driven south by the compliance schemes – as they are trying to get the best price for producers. Competition amongst the schemes has been fierce in the UK, with many tenders being priced on large volumes. As a result, the marketplace will not be able to sustain so many compliance schemes, margins will get smaller and smaller leading to further consolidation in the marketplace.
 Sims reduces the equipment down to 6mm pieces to ensure no data can be retrievedThe redundant computers’ internal workings are separated to then be processed |
One of the major differences between the Dutch and British experiences has been in the sharing of WEEE Directive information with the consumer. In the Dutch model, it is the responsibility of producers to communicate and educate the end user. This is not the case in the UK however, and there is a knowledge shortfall amongst businesses and consumers in Britain with regard to the fundamentals of the WEEE Directive.
It is not just communication that the UK should learn from the Netherlands. Across the Netherlands, there were initially 60 collection points; this has now been reduced to 17, and from a point of supply chain efficiency, that is a good thing. So, the lesson to be gleaned here is for nation states to try to concentrate volumes to avoid too much supply-chain complexity. In addition, it helps if compliance schemes are able to negotiate terms with fewer interested parties.
Logistics plays a huge role in the total cost of recycling, and the logistics charges in the Netherlands have remained high. This is still a big factor as the Dutch marketplace develops. It is vital that the supply chain looks at the way WEEE is packaged in containers and tries to improve on previous practice. The other option is to utilize stillages and the UK is going down this route as they are safer, more secure and easier to handle. The safety and security of WEEE is an area that the Netherlands has had to put a lot of consideration into. With any introduction of legislation, legitimate organizations will look to see how they can adapt and make the new laws work for them, but there will always be those other parties who are looking to operate outside the law to make a ‘quick buck’.
Learning from Dutch experience
As a result, the Netherlands has seen people approaching workers at WEEE collection points asking them to remove the most valuable items from the waste stream in return for cash. Once this untreated waste is removed from the collection sites, a lot of it gets shipped out of the EU to countries that do not have the same stringent waste regulations. This practice isn’t unique to the Netherlands and in recent years the Sims Group has experienced it at a number of its operations including Belgium and Germany. Despite the infant market in the UK, the company expects similar cases in the UK to come to light in the very near future.
 The redundant computers’ internal workings are seperated to then be processed |
With WEEE leaking from the supply chain in this manner, it presents a number of problems to the industry, most notably in relation to volume and cost. For example, when Sims began collecting WEEE in Europe, as an organization it factored in losses due to WEEE going missing from the waste stream. Now with the value of scrap materials high and the theft of WEEE growing, the leakage is actually increasing. The theft of WEEE will also create other side effects, most notably environmental issues, data security risk and potential negative publicity for those organizations whose end-of-life equipment is found in the wrong hands. With that in mind, it’s imperative that all those in the UK WEEE supply chain look at the process as a whole – from its collection from the civic amenity site all the way to delivery to the recycler.
The UK market will also learn that the number of categories of WEEE inevitably grows. As a recycler, we promote the idea that products should be reused and recycled as much as possible and this is helped by higher numbers of collected categories. It is good both commercially and for the environment to increase the number of categories, in order to catch as much WEEE as possible. Indeed, the achievement of even higher recycled volumes should be the goal for everyone in the supply chain.
A measurement for accurately gauging the quantities of WEEE coming in, balanced by a commercial desire for a speedy process, means that defined sampling of in-flows becomes vital. Taking Sims as an example, it samples 5% of loads coming through, having started at a far higher figure in the late 1990s. The group’s ability to monitor inbound material gives Sims the opportunity to provide support and services to manufacturers with regard to their obligations.
Once legislation is in place, the new marketplace will, inevitably, attract new players and Sims has seen numbers of WEEE recycling companies grow from three to eight in the Netherlands in the last decade. A market is mature when there are a viable number of recyclers – if there are too many or too few, the market is still immature. This is where the UK is – the market has not found its real level yet. The number of WEEE recyclers plays a large part in determining the success or failure of the market over time and it is far from predictable. Indeed, 10 years on in the Netherlands, we are still seeing fluctuations in the shape of the marketplace.
Recycling needs to be done in such a way as to bring bigger volumes together, which allows for greater efficiency. It’s also easier for the system to be audited by authorities, clients and compliance schemes - and the larger metals recyclers can bring metal solutions to get the bigger volumes together. However, as an industry, we need to continue to develop innovative, new techniques in order to deliver the answers that society requires, whether that is in the Netherlands or in the UK.
Success of WEEE recycling
Fifteen years ago, many TVs and monitors ended up in landfill but that figure is now zero; we have moved away from landfill to recycling for WEEE – and that is a huge step forward. And that success in the Netherlands came from bringing experience in the marketplace together, both from the recycling and electronics industries. The amount of copper in a TV has not changed over 50 years – we just have to work out a way of getting the copper out – and it is the same for other materials such as aluminium and glass. Shared knowledge brings that capability together, meaning that society and the environment benefit. It is fundamental that we get it right. Indeed, as long as the legislators have the right people involved, it is very possible to make extraordinary things happen.
Johan Zwart, International Business Director, Sims, the Netherlands
About the author
Johan Zwart, is one of the driving forces behind adoption of WEEE laws in 1998 in the Netherlands – ahead of the official EU enactment. He is also one of the world’s leading experts on bringing waste electrical legislation to reality.
