How does WEEE compare to what is happening in the US? Is Europe being more proactive?
In the US it is a state by state approach as opposed to a national solution which is the analogy I would use with the EU directive. But the US is working towards a national approach and I have a weekly call to tackle that as a state by state solution isn't going to work. California and Maine have passed legislation but they are very different pieces of legislation. For businesses and consumers how do you remember that in California you do this, Maine I do that? If you have businesses in both places you have to set your prices differently.
It is easier for everyone to have this done at a national level. But it should be remembered that it is not clear how uniform WEEE will be across Europe at this point -- only Greece and Germany have converted at this point I think.
Have you got any idea of how many units you are expecting to have to deal with over the next six months?
At this point with the awareness so low it's a bit of crap-shoot to tell you the truth to understand what the numbers could be. We have a corporate goal of increasing our take-back by 50 percent year on year.
Who should take responsibility for machines that were manufactured by vendors who may not be in that sector any more or even in existence?
We refer to that kind of equipment as 'orphan waste' where the manufacturer is no longer in business. That is definitely going to be a shared responsibility that we are all going to have to address and it's one of the reasons that we take back anybody's kit.
For businesses I would strongly encourage them when they are buying kit to be asking at the point they buy it: what is going to happen to this kit when I do buy it? Are you going to be responsible and put this in the bid? If they have old kit they should be asking their current suppliers to take that back.
