Trade bodies offer WEEE deals

The UK’s trade associations acted last month to help their members get the best deal when the deadline for reregistration for the WEEE producer compliance scheme (PCS) arrived.

Both the PCA and ITACS have teamed up with PCS WEEEcare to offer their members deals on their 2009 compliance quotes. Both deals offered their members cheaper registration deals and higher income per tonne of reclaimed WEEE.

"We promoted the WEEEcare deal to our members because it was a good deal for our smaller reseller and retail members," explained the PCA’s chief executive Keith Warburton. "The main function of the promotion was to let them know that the deadline for changing PCS was coming up and that we felt this deal represented the best value for our members."

When asked what sort of success they had seen in terms of members signing up, Warburton said: "We haven’t had any official figures through since we don’t have a formal arrangement with WEEEcare. But we have been told been told that it received quite a few calls as a direct result of our promotion.

One of the retailers we spoke to was NASCR’s Geoff Carr, who told PC Retail: "The ITACS deal is definitely one of the best I’ve come across. Granted, there was more that I wanted to find out before I took up the offer, but it does signal a change in the fundamentals of WEEE.

Only three months ago, the Government told PC Retail that it was preparing a crackdown on retailers, resellers and producers not signed up to the scheme. Many retailers and resellers we spoke to who had not signed up, said that costs and an apparent bias towards large producers put them off.

However, Carr believes that many of the things that those dodging registrations were protesting about, no longer exist. "It has changed from being a liability into an asset; it’s entirely possible to make a good profit from collection schemes."