- This topic has 7 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 20 years, 4 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Just curious if anyone has heard of or knows the possible implications of this goverment bill to come into effect in June 2006. As I understand it the goverment intends to charge manafacturers of electrical appliances for the disposal of the product at the end of its life.
This bill is called the WEEE directive (waste of electrical and electronic equipment)
The charge is to be proportional to their market share eg if Hoover had 50{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} of the market (YES I KNOW) then they would be charged 50{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} of the cost of safe disposal of the product. (Yes including refrigeration).
There is talk of “Compliance” agencies being set up to dispose of all the electrical waste.
So the questions begin will these compliance agencies completely dispose of the old product ie: shredded for scrap and fridges scrunched. Or will they be bothered to sell of old WMA’s to the trade.
The point is all of the raw stock may disapear (Is this abad thing?) it is to me I left Hoover after 12 years to work for a charity that recycles old product. Glad to leave Hoover “yes” please to be part of the company that set up Remploy and helps the disadvantaged “YES”
I am iterested to hear the opinons of my fellow trade members you can find out more about the WEEE directive @
Re: The Weee Directive
Type “WEEE” into the search facility – been a fair bit of discussion over the last 2 years.
Chris.
Yeah, there was also a very interesting presentation and subsequent discusion of this subject given at the February meeting as well.
Also scan the news articles, slews of information on WEEE there as well. 😉
K.
Re: The Weee Directive
Basically we’ve all been paying for years through our council tax to have all the old junk recycled/disposed of. When WEEE kicks in we’ll pay that in the price of a new machine. Therefore cost of a new machine should rise a bit meaning more repair work.
Have I got this right ❓
Mike.Re: The Weee Directive
I got this letter this morning off a manufactuer…
BSH wrote:…we will have to pass on these costs to the market. The exact date of the price increase will depend on the timing of the legislation. The increase will be described as an enviromental charge and shown as a separate line on our invoice. The amount is still being assessed but will depend on the prodct sold.
😯 Meh! 😕
Re: The Weee Directive
If this rise in prices happens, then possibly our customers will possibly be less likely to scrap machines on a whim, so it should be good for us repairers, yes?
Then can anyone fathom Merloni’s decision to ‘bond’ their washer drums together meaning, in essence that a bearing failure, sock or bra wire in the drum or smelly soap deposits = scrap machine? Doesn’t this fly in the face of what this directive is trying to stop? 😯
I did laugh at Dave’s comment that Merloni should send all their machines from the factory straight to landfill and cut out the middleman 😆 but in the cold light of day this bit of wit is not a million miles adrift from reality.
Will customers now demand a better product for their money? Very few customers I imagine will differenciate between the price of the machine and the disposal charge – but like car tyres will only remember the final bill total?
Comments please… 😕Re: The Weee Directive
In the end the customer will foot the bill as all these costs just have to be built in by the manufacturer and I don’t blame them for doing so either. Like most industries we just have to accept that there is now a disposal cost and that we have to stump up, the customer has to foot the bill.
Just as I think we should build in more costs to our services as well. In the end our service is only another product that consumers buy in one form or another.
As to the new trend for still larger units that are unrepairable, well that’s just great news in some ways as it means that when w scrap them we can sell the customer something more sensible. And, the customer will be so disenchanted with the brand and feel so cheated and ripped off that it’ll be an easy sale and she’ll tell ten of her friends.
Hoover and Hotpoint were the industry’s leading sellers ten years ago.
Things change.
K.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.