About collective take-back systems
Do you want to know more about the business-model of collective take-back systems? Collective systems with active stakeholder management provide a sound basis for moving forward, both at the European and national levels, with an efficient and cost-effective system for collection and recycling of waste electronics.
Collective take-back systems offer the simplest, most straightforward, and most cost-effective approach. They provide a predictable source of funds, pays for all returned products, adhere to principles of environmentally sound management, provide convenient collection opportunities, and do not place an extra financial burden on local governments.
The collective systems use every means possible to minimise costs employing competitive contracting for services, working with existing businesses and organisations, stimulating product design improvements to lower recycling costs, encouraging an extensive collection network to improve economies of scale, etc.
The underlying principle of collective take-back systems is that the stakeholders in the electronics' chain of commerce should manage the end-of-life system, and that stakeholders' responsibilities should be proportionate to their ability to implement and affect the system.
Collective take-back systems place manufacturers in a key role as the primary managers of the recycling infrastructure through governance of the management entity. Consumers discard their end-of-life products at appropriate collection facilities. Retailers participate in the collection of products. Business end users' requirements are met. Logistic companies and recyclers compete to provide environmentally responsible collection and processing. Government provides leadership by helping assure that all stakeholders perform their duties and the rules are followed. All stakeholders share responsibility to educate and inform the public.
Within the collective take-back structure, certain manufacturers should be allowed to benefit from their initiatives to design more easily recycled products and to create internal recycling infrastructures by taking individual responsibility for the collection and recycling of their products. Manufacturers that choose to establish their own collection and recycling systems should be free to do so, and they should be compensated for their actions by the collective take-back system in the same manner as other collectors and recyclers. If their collection and recycling processes are more efficient, the marketplaces will reward them.
However even within the framework of collective take-back systems there are a number of opportunities to enhance manufacturers' responsibilities for end-of-life management and to stimulate improvements in environmental design. The flow of information from recyclers to manufacturers through participation in the collective take-back system will enhance the knowledge and sophistication of product designers.
The following key principles are important in order to effectively and efficiently manage the collection, transportation and processing infrastructure:
- Services should be provided through competitive contracting
- The number of contracts should not be too large, for the purpose of management effectiveness and to keep administrative cost to a minimum
- All product management services should adhere to high standards of environmental and worker health and safety protection.
Plus, the individual, brand-specific approach implies laws, regulations and enforcement that mandate companies to fulfil their obligations. The obligations that must be enforced include that financial obligations are met by all manufacturers, recycling services are environmentally responsible and meet performance targets, and pick-ups from consolidation centres are timely and fairly distributed – the tendency to "cherry pick" shipments from population centres must be controlled.
Governments must ensure that many small and often foreign manufacturers meet their obligations. Enforcement can be expensive, and a lack of enforcement – one of the industry's chief worries – results in an uneven and unfair playing field in the marketplace, allowing free riders to continue to escape any responsibility.
As amounts of historic waste steadily decline, and when all consumer waste on the market has financial guarantees, it will be reasonable for producers to make calculations on the actual return share of their branded products. As the actual return share may be less than present market share, due to longevity or market saturation of the products, it may be more equitable to divide costs via return share. This may be done first through statistical sampling, then through the use of RFID (radio frequency identification) technologies to recognise specific, manufacturer product models.