e-waste practice in uk, japan & switzerland

8/9/2019 E-Waste Practice in UK, Japan & Switzerland

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Switzerland

Switzerland, with one of the highest per capita incomes in the world,2 is also among its

most technologically advanced countries. The total installed PC base in Switzerland is

3.15 million PCs, which translates into one PC for almost every two persons (World Bank,

2004), over 99% of the households have refrigerators and over 96% have TVs

(Euromonitor, 2003). Even though market penetration of electrical and electronic goods

is high, the market for new appliances remains strong, with annual per capita spending on

ICT products topping US$3600, the highest in the world.

Switzerland also ranks among the top countries in the world regarding environment

protection. Ranked 7th on the 2005 Environmental Sustainability Index (Esty et al, 2005),

its score of 1.39 for Environmental Governance3 ranks it seventh in the world.

Environment concerns as well as consumer awareness regarding environmental issues is

high, and in a recent study (SAEFL, 2004), 62.6% of the citizens wanted the government

to place more emphasis on environmental issues. The Swiss law on waste management

stresses the polluter pays principle and has encouraged the reduction, reuse and recycling

of waste.

Not surprisingly, Switzerland is the first country in the world to have established a

formal system to manage e-waste. Even though the 68,000 tonnes of e-waste collected in

Switzerland in 2003 represented only 2.6% of the waste stream,4 it corresponds to a little

over 9 kg/capita5substantially more than the 4 kg/capita target set by the EU in the

WEEE Directive (EU, 2004). The effective collection of e-waste in Switzerland is

primarily due to the efficient management of the waste stream by two Producer

Responsibility Organisations (PROs)SWICO and S.EN.S. Along broad lines, SWICO

manages brown goodselectronic equipment such as computers, TVs, radios, etc.,

while S.EN.S handles white goods such as washing machines, refrigerators, ovens, etc.

Both SWICO and S.EN.S have more than a decade of experience in managing e-waste,

having started their e-waste programs based on the principle of Extended ProducerResponsibility (EPR), well before it became legally mandatory. Lindhqvist (2000), one of

the pioneers of EPR, defines it as ban environmental protection strategy to reach an

environmental objective of a decreased total impact from a product, by making the

manufacturer of the product responsible for the entire life cycle of the product and

especially for the take back, recycling and final disposal of the productQ.

Legislation on e-waste management was introduced into Switzerland only in 1998,

when the Ordinance on dThe Return, the Taking Back and the Disposal of Electrical and

Electronic AppliancesT (ORDEA) (SAEFL, 1998) came into force.

The collection and recycling of e-waste in Switzerland is an intentionally developed

and organised system. As mentioned before, the Swiss system is based on EPRbothlegally and operationally. This places both the physical as well as the financialresponsibility of an environmentally sound disposal of end-of-life electronics with the

manufacturers and importers of these products. The entire operative responsibility is

however with the two PROsSWICO and S.EN.Swho manage and operate the system onbehalf of their member producers. This also ensures that there is a clear definition of rolesand a demarcation of responsibilities


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New e-waste recycling laws begin

A much-delayed law that makes

British producers and importers of

electronic goods responsible for the recycling of their products has come

into force.

The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive requires

4kg of "e-waste" to be recycled per person.

Manufacturers have to fund recycling schemes, while retailers must offer

take-back services to customers.

E-waste, which includes PCs, games consoles, microwaves and washing

machines, is the fastest-growing form of rubbish in the European Union.

The UK produces an estimated 1.2m tonnes of e-waste each year, most of

which has been ending up in landfill sites.

Under the legislation, retailers selling electrical goods are obliged to offercustomers a free in-store take-back service on a "like for like" basis, or help

fund the expansion of a network of WEEE collection points.

Comet, one of the UK's largest electrical retailers, is among the companies

funding the upgrading of local authority-run recycling facilities.

The directive has also required manufacturers to join one of 37 "Producer

Compliance Schemes" operating in the UK.

The schemes, which are monitored by the Environment Agency, collect andrecycle the e-waste on behalf of the companies.

"The amount we are responsible for is calculated by looking at the amount

we sell," explained HP's takeback compliance manager, Kirstie McIntyre.

Japan

"What they have done in Japan is introduce a more individual producers'

responsibility approach," she said.

"Instead of HP being responsible for any old IT and recycling it, we are only

responsible for HP equipment."

This had a number of additional environmental benefits, she added.

"Most of the environmental impact in complex manufactured goods is

decided at the design stage. "If we design our products to be more recyclable

at the end-of-life stage, we not only reap the economic benefits but also the

design decisions that we have made.


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"Why should we make [components] easier to remove when we are getting

everybody else's laptop back.

"At the end of the day, we have shareholders and we have to make a very

strong business case for any changes that we make.

"At the moment, we do have design changes that we can make, but we cannotmake the business case stack up because we do not get enough of our own

products back."

e-waste practice in uk, japan & switzerland

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