As we all know WEEE is on the way for better or worse and, according to the rules, charges cannot be made as an extra “tax” for disposal. It seems as if my local council has elected to ignore that bit of the Directive to an extent and impliment charging sooner than is required. In fact the new legislation will not now come into force until June 2006 at the earliest, assuming the Central Government and the EU can actually agree on the implimentation by then of course.
Below is an advert placed in this week’s Kilmarnock Standard, a local newspaper for East Ayrshire:
As is plainly seen there is a charge to collect ANY whitegoods according to this advertisment from the 10th October 2005. Of course the option remains to take the old appliance to the local refuse tip, but that to me discriminates against those without the means or ability to do so.
It could also be argued that this is effectively a tax on the disposal of such items and, in fact, I do regard it as such as to hire a van to dispose of in the so-called free manner would amount to more than the council’s charge.
To my knowledge no local retailers or businesses involved in the whitegoods industry has been consulted or informed of this change and it is entirely possible that other local councils have pushed through such changes without any notification whatsoever.
Charge are still made to dispose of appliances on a commercial footing.
The image links to the East Ayrshire Council website but the link given in the article is incorrect and only leads to the page linked to from the image.