Turn green to gold
October 1st 2006 Nick Clements, business development manager at Allibert Buckhorn and member of the WEEE Reverse Logistics Forum panel of industry experts, looks at the practicalities of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive and how there is still time for logistics providers and distributors to turn green into gold for themselves
The continued delays in making the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive reality in the UK are now arguably better known in the industry than some of the detail of the regulations themselves. The latest implementation date now given is January 2007, although it's clear much still has to be put in place to meet this.
Ireland adopted the Regulations in August 2005 and has since claimed success, saying it has collected over 11,000 tonnes of fridges and freezers and over 1,000 TV sets since it began - the equivalent of 6.7 Kg of WEEE for every Irish citizen, beating the target set by Europe of 4kg per head of population.
Collected, this material - everything from hair dryers to tumble dryers - must then be broken down and recycled, and the whole process must be funded by the electrical manufacturers and retailers themselves.
Thus, a new market in 'reverse logistics' will be born virtually overnight, at the same scale and in parallel with both the traditional outbound logistics market and Local Authority landfill and refuse handling.
Recycling plants In anticipation, large-scale recycling plants have opened to process WEEE. Wincanton at Billingham near Middlesbrough was the first such purpose-built facility in February 2006 able to recycle as much as 75,000 tonnes a year in line with the requirements of the WEEE Directive, Wincanton has chosen to use folding bulk boxes from Allibert Buckhorn as part of its collection solutions to complement this flagship scheme, because of their inherent robustness and easy handling. Eighty of the boxes are now in use, and the early success of the pioneering scheme means that both the nature of the operation and the containers used are likely to quickly become industry standard.
Re-use? But perhaps a less well-known element within the WEEE Regulations specifies that products should be re-used wherever possible, before being considered for recycling. So that widescreen TV set in good working order that has been unceremoniously dumped for the latest plasma screen should ideally be put back into 'the system' first but what system? And therein lies the rub: will there be a market for all these 'old' products? With the cost of electronics falling and the desire to have the 'latest and greatest', will anybody be waiting for that old TV? And are we likely to see the new job of high-tech rag and bone men spring up?
To date schemes such as the partnership between Wincanton, Comet, and Remploy to take-back and refurbish white goods, have resulted in products being refurbished and sold back to the public through charity shops. They have all had to be logged, sorted, tested, repaired where practicable and repackaged for onward sale. The likelihood is that other refurbished products will go overseas, to Eastern Europe or Africa where the need to keep up with the Joneses is not such an issue.
There are very obvious practical concerns as well for example, many modern TVs do not have front controls and are unlikely to come with their remote control, let alone an instruction manual.
Allibert Buckhorn has been involved in consultation around WEEE right from the beginning, because plastic containers are the obvious choice for storing and moving waste electrical and electronic equipment.
Storing and handling WEEE is no easy task. By its very nature, it includes a wide variety of materials with varying weights and sizes, technological complexities and values, at both the re-use and recycling stages.
Producers have to accept all WEEE, regardless of whether they actually sold or stock that item.
It is expected that the bulk of collections and handling will be carried out by Local Authorities, alongside their existing recycling operations, although they are only being allocated £6,000 to set up each facility. But retailers also have to accept any WEEE that a consumer may bring to them, and so have to make provision.
And for consumers, it could be much easier to drop off that old video recorder or hair dryer at their nearest out-of-town retail park while out shopping than queue up at the tip on a Sunday afternoon.
Technology and infrastructure There is a clear opportunity here for forwardthinking third party logistics (3PL) companies to capitalise on the opportunity presented by WEEE and other regulations. It is estimated that it is a third of the cost to join a compliance scheme than to set up your own and, just like outbound logistics, it is the major 3PLs that are best places to deliver such a service efficiently, using their existing technology and infrastructure.
Existing relationships will be particularly fruitful in collecting WEEE from the retailers themselves, as they cannot refuse to accept it in-store should a member of the public choose to deposit it there rather than at Local Authority Civic Amenity sites.
Plastic folding bulk boxes, such as those from Allibert Buckhorn, are ideal for WEEE handling by producers and logistics providers, as they are virtually unbreakable, lightweight for their size and cost-effective.
Their range of standard industry sizes make it as easy as possible for logistics companies to help producers meet their obligations by handling WEEE easily and safely. As the saying goes, where there's muck there could indeed be brass. More articles from Allibert Helix: | 
