Michael Lowry (Tipperary North, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 223: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government further to Question No. 504 of 28 February 2006, if watches and clocks which are battery operated are subject to the WEEE producer recycling scheme; if not, the levy that is imposed on these items; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9831/06]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

As stated in the reply to Question No. 504 of 28 February 2006, battery operated watches and clocks with a voltage rating not exceeding 1,500 volts for direct current, DC, are within the scope of the WEEE directive. Consequently, retailers are required to take back such items at end of life on a one-for-one basis when selling a similar product. Alternatively members of the public can deposit waste battery operated watches and clocks at any local authority civic amenity facility catering for WEEE free of charge. Producers placing these products on the market are responsible for recycling them at end of life.

There is no levy on electrical and electronic products placed on the market. The WEEE directive allows producers to show the cost of recovering and recycling "historic" waste, that is waste arising from electric and electronic products put on the market before 13 August 2005. These costs are referred to as environmental management costs, EMCs. They are not imposed by, or remitted to, the Government, but are paid by producers to the two collective compliance schemes operating in Ireland, WEEE Ireland and the European Recycling Platform. These schemes are operating a producer responsibility initiative. The purpose of the EMCs is to enable the schemes to pay for the environmentally sound management of all household WEEE taken back by retailers or deposited by members of the public at local authority civic amenity sites.

The EMCs currently applied show the costs of recycling based on data submitted by producers to the WEEE Register Society Limited, the industry-based national WEEE registration body, which has an independent committee of management. The WEEE Register Society assessed and approved the EMCs and my Department has no function in the matter. Following a partial review of EMCs, a reduction to zero euro of the EMCs for clocks and watches was implemented by WEEE Register Society on 5 December 2005. EMCs are input costs and how these are dealt with in the pricing of products is part of the normal negotiations between producer and retailer.

The WEEE scheme has been operating for six months and the real benefits of this new system for consumers and the environment are becoming apparent. WEEE is now being collected from over 180 collection points nationwide. Early indications are that significant quantities of this waste type are being returned for recycling. In the first 12 weeks alone 4,800 tonnes, equivalent to an annual rate of almost 20,000 tonnes, of household WEEE was collected. This points to a fourfold increase in the recycling of household WEEE as 5,510 tonnes of this waste type was recovered in 2004, and indicates widespread public support for the implementation of the directive.