1996 Electronics Industry Environmental Roadmap - Civil and ...

Appendix J
254
150,001 to 600,000 1060 500
above 600,001 1600 1000
1 Office equipment, copiers, facsimiles, workstations, printers
2 Personal computers, workstation peripherals
The compulsory fee must be openly and separately displayed on all price lists and invoices, and
no discounting is allowed. Participating companies manage the pre-payment fee revenue, with
guidelines developed by SWICO on the kind of expenditures that companies can bill to their prepayment
accounts. External auditors, on behalf of the signatories, must guarantee to the public
that guidelines are observed. Semi-annually, participating companies contribute 2% of the prepayment
fees to SWICO for system administration, and to cover the cost of recycling nonmember
equipment.
France, Germany, and the Netherlands: Shared Responsibility Proposals
After several years of study and negotiation with their Ministries, the French, German, and Dutch
electronic industry associations propose “shared responsibility” models for electronics
disposition. Under these models, responsibility for the collection and processing of used
electronic equipment would be shared by the chain of actors in the product life cycle, including
product manufacturers, retail outlets, municipal authorities, and the waste management industry.
The proposals strongly argue for the continued role of municipalities as the principal entities for
the collection of electronic goods, rather than establishing an independent industry-financed
infrastructure. These municipal-based systems are intended to preserve and augment the current
collection infrastructure, which provides collection points close to households and is familiar to
consumers, in order to ensure a high level of product returns. Under contract with municipalities,
the waste disposal/recycling industry would be responsible for the environmentally-sound
processing of equipment and for ensuring adequate capacities. Certification of recycling firms
and reporting systems (e.g., of recycling rates) would provide increased assurance of
environmentally-sound recycling.
The expressed role of manufacturers in electronics disposition is two-fold:
1) The design of new products to reduce waste generation, avoid harmful substances, and
enhance recyclability at end of product life; and
2) Information dissemination to customers and recycling firms to help ensure appropriate
disposition.
In Germany and the Netherlands, industry proposes that consumers should pay for disposal at the
end of product life, if needed, or municipalities should bear the cost through an increase in
annual waste assessments to households. In Germany, industry proposes different financing
mechanisms based on the size of the electronic equipment. For large electrical appliances and
consumer electronics, municipalities could charge consumers a separate recycling fee, while no
fee would be charged for small goods that fit in the trash bin (i.e., can be hidden in the trash).
Industry proposes that municipalities assess each household an additional DM 15 (about U.S.
$10) annually in their waste bills to cover the recycling costs for these small goods. Estimated