The Recycler Issue 317

FEATURE
LOVE ME TENDER: Government tenders, continued
environmental aspects of products into
consideration, instead of just the
lowest price.” ETIRA was hopeful that
the development would “ensure
better quality and value for money
when public authorities buy or lease
works, goods or services,” whilst
simultaneously removing the barrier
and making it more feasible for Small
and Medium Businesses (SMBs) to put
in bids for procurement contracts.
“In public tenders, our industry
has always suffered from unfair
competition by others,” said Vincent
Van Dijk, ETIRA’s long-serving
Secretary General, at the time of the
update. “Since the start of the
economic crises, public authorities
often simply choose the cheapest
product offered, which in many cases
was a Chinese patent-infringing newbuild
cartridge. By doing so, they
neglected the environmental burden
and loss of local jobs that these
products represent. I hope the new EU
rules will allow remanufacturers,
being only small and medium-sized
enterprises, to capitalise on their added
value: the environment-friendly reuse
of a product, and produced by local
workers, thus saving natural
resources, and creating local jobs.”
There was another small ray of hope
in 2015, when the French Federation
of Cleaning Companies (FEP)
announced it would provide members
with the tools and materials needed to
bid for tenders for the collection of
non-paper waste, from the following
year. The initiative followed an
agreement between the FEP and the
Ministry of the Environment,
Sustainable Development and Energy
some years previously, which
highlighted the role of cleaning
companies in collecting toner
cartridges, bulbs, batteries and other
electrical waste, and argued that “the
management of non-paper waste
offers opportunities for further growth
with the setting-up of new associated
services.”
The hard work of ETIRA bore further
fruit in 2016-17, when the European
Union announced its Study on the
implementation of product design
requirements set out in Article 4 of the
WEEE Directive – the case of re-usability
of printer cartridges, which set out to
assess whether cartridge reuse was
being promoted by EU member states,
and also to “suggest recommendation
for EU supportive action.”
ETIRA explained that member states
were already obliged to take measures
to stimulate reuse of e-waste, under
Article 4 of the EU’s WEEE directive;
they were additionally under the
obligation to ensure devices and
practices designed to scupper reuse
were prevented. Yet the study
acknowledged that “in the case of
cartridges, little progress has been
made up till now,”
“We are happy to see that the EU has
singled out printer cartridges to
show that original equipment manufacturers
(OEMs) do not apply
ecodesign principles when they design
their cartridges,” said Vincent Van
Dijk. “We definitively need more
proactive EU action to facilitate
cartridge reuse.”
“OEMs obstruct cartridge remanufacturing
in many different ways, and
member states have not done anything
about it,” Van Dijk added, at the time
of the study, explaining that ETIRA
was seeking to “push for strong
recommendations for remedial action,
like making design for easy reuse by
third parties compulsory,” as well as
“insisting that government tenders
buy remanufactured cartridges and
eco-labelled printers only,” and calling
for “less stringent rules for handling
empties.”
What do the OEMs say?
Many of the Original Equipment
Manufacturers have been relatively
tight-lipped on the subject, but one
company that has publicly declared its
position is HP Inc., which commented
that it “encourages adoption of new,
forward-looking IT procurement
models.”
“We support procurements based on
objective criteria and internationally
recognised quality standards, to
ensure fair competition and access to
the best global technologies,” HP
declared, adding pointedly that it only
supports “science-based justifications
for any preferences for remanufactured/refilled
cartridges.”
Other hurdles on the horizon
It’s not just the intransigence of the
OEMs that presents a hurdle to
small businesses – particularly those
from the aftermarket – applying
for government tenders, however.
Brexit, predictably, is also causing
consternation across the continent,
and leaving a trail of difficulties in its
wake.
With the imminent withdrawal of
the United Kingdom from the
European Union, it has been reported
that the French President, Emmanuel
Macron, has called for British
companies to be “frozen out” of EU
contracts. Currently, EU legislation
maintains “an open marketplace for
public services, with no discrimination
and a level playing field” for the 28
Member States.
With negotiations over the exact
nature of Britain’s withdrawal still
ongoing, and the specifications of its
future relationship with the EU
somewhat up in the air, there is no
concrete information over what will
happen concerning public tenders in
the EU, but the British Government has
previously indicated that “there will be
no immediate change to any EUderived
law, including therefore public
procurement law.”
Were the UK to seek to continue
its access to public sector marketplaces
in the EU, it could sign up to the
World Trade Organisation’s General
Agreement on Procurement, which
would grant continued access in both
8 THE RECYCLER • ISSUE 317 • APRIL 2019