Stance on Recycling Electrical Equipment Attacked

An unlikely alliance of the electronics industry, environmental groups and consumer organizations has accused the government of derailing European legislation on recycling.

The government, still smarting from its embarrassment over the fridge "mountain" that resulted from European recycling laws, is resisting an important clause in the directive on waste electrical and electronic equipment.

The clause would break new ground in environmental legislation by making producers responsible for recycling waste products. But the government believes that it would be impossible to enforce a system dependent on individual responsibility, leaving the taxpayer to pick up part of the bill.

Companies such as Electrolux, Sony, Hewlett Packard and Philips have teamed up with Friends of the Earth and the European Environmental Bureau to try to make the government change its position before a critical meeting on Thursday.

They, along with most European Union member states, believe the UK is weakening the "polluter pays" principle. Its stance would remove much of the incentive for companies to design products that could be recycled easily because the resulting cost savings would be diluted among the overall cost of managing the sector's waste.

"The EU cannot expect us to invest in advanced eco-technologies while simultaneously forcing us to share the benefits with companies that cannot be bothered to invest," says Henrik Sundstrom, Electrolux's head of environmental affairs.

But the government, which is worried about the impact of the directive on small companies as well as the difficulty of policing the proposed system, said: "We have no problem with individual responsibility but we don't want it as the only option." It concedes that its preferred outcome would reduce the pressure on companies to improve design to promote recycling. "We take that point but there are other ways that lead people to better design, not least that it makes sound business sense to use latest elements in design," it said.

Melissa Shinn, of the European Environmental Bureau, said the UK was playing the role of the lowest common denominator and "squirming out of its responsibilities".