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Guys,
As I’ve mentioned in other posts Lawrence and I spent last Monday in London at Defra representing the WTA at a re-use forum.
What became apparent fairly early on is that Defra is under extreme pressure from Government to increase its re-use figures from around 3{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} to somewhere about 20{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d}.
That being said they have more problems in that the manufacturers only pay lip service to re-use as they see it as a threat to their sales targets, other vested interests also became visible in the form of Environcom and other metal recyclers. So they have no support from the big hitters and little money to put into schemes.
We appear with a portfolio of information covering sealed tubs, lack of technical support from manufacturers and PCBs that cannot be repaired or that require programming costing more than the appliance in total. Not just that but we produce figures on re-use (done with ISE & Amica products) that are three times the best that Environcom displayed at the forum and twenty times greater than the current offering.
Suddenly, we discovered that we are driving the bus and that Defra want to talk to us and give us full support up to ministerial level.
So Lawrence (as usual – passing the baton) tasked me with coming up with a pilot scheme to prove that we the repairers should have been first port of call. I have therefore put this to Defra –
We will set up three re-use centres in Luton (Bryan) Chester (George) and Boston (me) to carry out refurbishment of appliances. Before you query the choice, George and I have the licencing in place already and are carrying out re-use now and Bryan has the real estate to take a quantity of appliances in at a go (150)
Secondly, we wanted it kept within the team so that if it goes pear-shaped we take the kicking not someone outside of the loop. Other thing is that we must keep it confidential as this is the way that Defra want it (guess they dont want egg on their faces either) Defra we hope will sort out the manufacturers for supply of appliances through the WEEE stream.
Equally, we can source other ways of getting appliances.
The ramifications of this are huge, refurbished appliances generate a claimable evidence value, recycled items gain recycling credits, second user parts become a money tree 😯 The field is wide open, we have all manner of things we are doing and I’ll let you know when we have them in place.
Together with the stuff above I honestly think Defra were gobsmacked that here is a trade association that wants to work with them, not hinder things for their own companies benefit. I’ll keep you informed – Ian
Re: Defra – Re-use forum
Evening all ,What looked like a boring day with government suddenly took an interesting turn when we were asked to stay behind for a quick chat which ended up being a grilling which lasted over two hours ..
One thing that had never occurred to DEFRA is that by repairing machines we prevent them from entering the waste stream and is in turn a form of reuse ,we had a very one sided presentation from Envirocomn about their reuse statistics which are woefully poor,which triggered a thought in my mind re the Weee directive and technical information ,the basic premise of which is that the manufacturers hide behind a clause that states they are only obliged to disclose tech info to people that Re-Use :idea:.
If DEFRA recognize repair as a bona-fide form of reuse then the manufacturers are obliged to provide tech info…
Along way off perhaps but it is a start .
The lady talking to us stated that she was disillusioned that the only people interested in reuse were the big recycle-rs and that was because they had a vested interest,we explained that our vested interest was our members ,and further more how the big guys are hoovering everything up nationally ,adding green miles etc ,which was a bit of a revelation to her.
Normally Government stuff takes forever ,but this thing is moving faster than we expected ,it seems we have tapped in to an unknown zeitgeist
The ultimate aim is that no matter how big or small those WTA members that wish can become a DEFRA accredited reuse centre and have the ability to refurb appliances .
The icing on the cake was that we were the only trade association that seemed remotely interested in what they are doing 😀Re: Defra – Re-use forum
Its like most government bodies, Quango they are not generally intersted in talking or working with people on the outside.
As you say TA who is willing to work with them, they are thinking whats the catch!
So its great you have managed to get them on side guys, how diplomatic were you Ian that must have been difficult 😆In most cases got thier head buried in the sand. They are usually just concerned with playing with figures, getting a wage for doing F all, wasting tax payers money and pleasing europe not necessarily in that order .
Great work guys, keep it up 😉
Re: Defra – Re-use forum
Tend to agree with you Steve but they are in the s***e big time with the government and their poor re-use figures. The easy answer was to get us involved and then if it goes pear-shaped they can pass the buck. Didn’t have to be diplomatic Environcom were there getting cut to shreads 8)
Re: Defra – Re-use forum
Just to update ,the next forum is in York and they have asked me to give a presentation from the perspective of the Whitegoods industry with regards to what can we do to prevent appliances entering the waste stream.
also they want us to share our experiences of waste in our sectorRe: Defra – Re-use forum
A further update ,Ian and I have been asked if we would like to meet Lord Mauley at westminster for a breakfast meeting to explore further ways in which to prevent stuff entering the waste stream.
Re: Defra – Re-use forum
Update to Lawrences bit — Lawrence & I met Lord de Mauley yesterday for breakfast (although) Lawrence was not too impressed with the slice of orange he was given !! Together with a group of 11 other people covering environmentalists, local authority reps. the Confederation of British Industries and Federation of Small Business. We put forward our thoughts on how waste could be managed better in the UK. Copious notes were made by Defra etc and we will see what pops out of the box. For the WTA it was more a case of exposure to government rather than lobbying so I think we held our own. Time will tell. I have followed up the meeting with an email to his under secretary (you know undersecretary to the undersecretary) indicating that it is about time those that could help each other were brought together to produce a plan that might work rather than talking lots of guff about what wont. Watch this space.
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