Draft Business Waste Strategy PDF - london.gov.uk - Greater ...

Making waste work in London The Mayor’s Draft Business Waste Management Strategy Mayor of London 39
■ the PRN/PERN system supports reprocessing without regard for its
carbon impact. For example, an equivalent PRN/PERN is generated
from recycling glass bottles back into new glass bottles (closed-loop
recycling), or from recycling glass into aggregate (open-loop
recycling). Given the volumes and quality of material sent for recycling,
both types of recycling play an important role, yet in carbon terms,
some open-loop recycling, such as recycling glass into aggregate, has
a negative impact on climate change 87 . The government should look
to establish a weighting system for PRNs/PERNs, weighted in favour
of carbon positive recycling, similar to the weighting system given in
the government’s Energy White Paper 88 for the Renewables Obligation.
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment
3.32 The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive became
European law in February 2003, setting collection, recycling and recovery
targets for all types of electrical products. The directive set a household
collection target of four kg of equipment per head per year by 2006 and
the government has not yet set a new target.
3.33 Though accurate data is not available, research 89 indicates that the four
kg target has been met. However, this relies heavily on the collection
of fridges picked up under the Ozone Depleting Substances Regulations
(2002) and it is not yet clear how the UK is doing in all ten categories
of electrical and electronic equipment covered by the directive.
3.34 Under the directive, retailers have an obligation to give consumers the
opportunity to return electrical equipment free of charge when they
purchase new equipment and producers are responsible for funding the
collection, treatment, recovery and recycling of electrical equipment
delivered to authorised facilities, in line with their market share. However,
the government has chosen to implement the directive by largely relying
on the existing network of reuse and recycling centres, thereby offering
a far lower standard of service than specified in the directive as there
are few collection facilities in London.
3.35 This approach is unacceptable to the Mayor because the government
has not reviewed the density of reuse and recycling centres in London
nor surveyed their suitability to separately collect electrical equipment.
The Mayor believes the priority should be to provide a network of
services that are convenient for Londoners and maximise the capture
of electrical equipment.
3.36 The Mayor has concerns about the government’s implementation of the
directive and wants to see: