A WEEE worry for the recycling industry

The UK inkjet cartridge recycling industry will die if the government fails to include spent cartridges under the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive.

Keith Moss, director of the UK Cartridge Recycling Association (UKCRA), has warned that if the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) classifies inkjet printer cartridges as consumables rather than electrical waste, it will result in empty cartridges being dumped in landfill sites.

The DTI's decision means that original equipment manufacturers will not have to recycle cartridges, and will also open the door for the use of smartchips that prevent cartridges from being refilled and reused.

This, Moss believes, this will destroy the inkjet cartridge recycling industry in the UK.

He insisted that the government must deal with inkjet cartridges in the same way as other electrical waste if it wants a remanufacturing industry.

Remanufacturers have warned that the expense of back-engineering smartchips to fit cartridges would make it uneconomical for the industry to continue to offer cheap refills.

"The way things currently stand I give the industry three to four years. After that we are not going to be there," Moss claimed.

Proposed measures from the Environment Agency to make it mandatory to obtain a certificate of transfer before recycling were also criticised by Moss.

He claimed that this would increase the burden on original equipment manufacturers interested in recycling.

UKCRA recently held a meeting to discuss the WEEE directive with the DTI and the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

It argued that the WEEE directive clearly and categorically covers not only the product itself, but consumables as well.

"So far only the UK seems to have decided not to include cartridges under WEEE," Moss said.

But a DTI spokesman told vnunet.com that, although it did not consider consumables as falling under the WEEE remit, it would monitor the situation.

Moss claimed: "The DTI and Defra told us that as far as they are concerned that we fell outside the remit. We were able to put them straight.

"Even if they call inkjets consumables, the WEEE directive includes consumables. Then they said the legislation and the amendments are a nightmare to put in practice."

Moss also dismissed what he said were government suggestions that another EU initiative, the Eco-Design Directive, would resolve the outstanding issues.

"What good will a directive be that has already been watered down and won't be in place for another seven years? We won't be here," he said.