Makers must recycle old machines

New EU environmental regulations which will force producers of electrical goods to recover their products once they are out of service will cost Irish industry in the region of €10 million a year.

However, manufacturers of fridges and freezers will be exempt from this cost for the time being.

The regulations, announced by the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, yesterday, are aimed at minimising the environmental impact of electronic waste.

From August 2005, owners of electrical goods, from washing machines to computers, will be entitled to leave their old machines back to either the place of purchase or the manufacturers themselves, free of charge.

Producers of electrical and electronic goods will be obliged to have systems in place to ensure the waste is collected and recycled in line with EU directives.

The employers' body, IBEC, has estimated this will cost manufacturers about €10 million a year. "These directives will have a major financial and logistical implications for all manufacturers, distributors and retailers of electrical and electronic equipment in Ireland," said Mr Donal Buckley, head of IBEC's environmental unit.

The figure of €10 million was a conservative estimate, Mr Buckley said, and was dependent on recycling infrastructure being in place by 2005. "The funding of the collection and recovery will be made more difficult given the lack of recycling infrastructure in Ireland," he said.

Mr Buckley said that while it was possible that the cost of recycling would be passed on to the consumer through more expensive products, the cost of electrical goods tended to follow a downward trend.

"Whether the cost will appear on items or whether innovation in the industry will absorb it is hard to say, but I'm sure industry will try its best not to pass it on to the consumer," he said.

The directives also require manufacturers to phase out the use of hazardous substances, such as lead and mercury, in their goods.

However, manufacturers of fridges and freezers are to be exempt from the responsibility of recovering their products, despite the presence of dangerous substances such as CFC chemicals (chlorofluorocarbons) in their machines.

A spokeswoman for the Department of the Environment said decaying fridges had become too great a problem to deal with through a producers' recovery scheme and required an "all-island solution", involving the Northern Ireland authorities.

Fridges and freezers were designated as hazardous wastes by the EU at the end of 2001, due to the gases held by the foam in their coils.

This new designation meant that these products could no longer go into landfill. Since the start of 2002, county councils have been collecting the discarded white goods and holding them in storage.

Dublin City Council's environmental awareness officer, Ms Margaret Foynes, said the council collected 3,521 broken-down machines last year.

The local authority sends its fridges to a Dublin waste management firm, Thorntons, which then exports them to Germany.

However, the Department of the Environment has decided this "ad hoc" system is no longer acceptable.

Green MEP Ms Nuala Ahern said electrical equipment must be recycled in Ireland rather than exporting the problem.

"The cost of electronic waste would spiral out of control in Ireland compared to other EU countries if we weren't able to recycle them ourselves. Everything from mobile phones to old televisions would have to be exported at a heavy cost," she said.