1. ALEX MCFARLANE HEAD OF PURCHASING NOTTINGHAM TRENT UNIVERSITY
WEEE REGULATIONS 2006 – A PURCHASING PERSPECTIVE

2. Session Topics Introduction Strategic overview
Producer Responsibility v “Wriggleoutability”
Whole Life Costing in Purchasing decisions
Purchasing Issues for Consideration
Overview of Current Supplier/Producer Practice
Summary
January 13, 2019

3. Introduction Legislative position Producer attitudes WEEE Scope impact
Much of the uncertainty re the legislation revolves around the potential opt-outs that producers and compliance schemes have, which could increase the obligations on institutions.
Much will depend on producer attitudes re taking responsibility
The wide-ranging scope of the legislation dictates that a considerable amount of information gathering and management action is required to assess the potential impact on institutions.
I would expect most institutions to purchase items in 8 out of 10 WEEE categories, some will cover 9, and some all 10,
January 13, 2019

4. Strategic Overview Re-use/demand management Institutional organisation
Management efficiency/control
Risk management
Purchasing is about value for money
Need to ensure that we build sustainability into purchasing decisions
Basic point of purchasing is identification and management of need. Before we buy EEE, we need to determine whether the need can be met by another means i.e. spare items which removes need to procure items made from new/scarce resources.
WEEE Regs encourage reuse of equipment so a demand management strategy for purchasing will aid this.
Depends on how institutions are organised and their cultures re ability to manage WEEE. Institutions with devolved budgets and decision-making powers will find it harder to co-ordinate purchasing, use and disposal activity.
Degree of management efficiency and control over these activities needs to be factored into decisions about whether to take responsibility for WEEE or leave it with the producers, if there is a choice.
Example at NTU, Purchasing is responsible for all non-pay spend above £25k. Constitutes about 92% of spend and covers about 500 suppliers. The remaining 8% is worth £5m, covering 5500 suppliers, some of whom will supply EEE. Is this significant enough to manage as a risk?
Other risks to manage e.g. purchasing from a non-registered producer
and seek to
January 13, 2019

5. Producer Responsibility v “Wriggleoutability”
Legislation v guidance
User, producer or scheme responsibility
WEEE or “Historic” WEEE
Compliance schemes
Can suppliers wriggle out of their responsibility?
Legislation allows producers the flexibility to conclude an agreement with business end users to make alternative arrangements.
BERR guidance uses phrases such as:
“producer and business end-user making their own contractual arrangement”
“a producer may have an agreement with the business end user”
“the producer may come to an alternative contractual arrangement”
“if there is no such negotiation and agreement, the responsibilities lie with….the producer”
The language suggests that there needs to be an element of agreement, probably prefaced by some negotiation, therefore producers can’t just impose their will.
Default position is that if there is no agreement to the contrary, producer retains responsibility
If you agree an alternative arrangement, ensure that it is well documented and readily available for future access
The lamp producer situation suggests that they are wrong to charge the 15p recycling charge. Even via a distributor, if no agreement is in place about an alternative arrangement, financing of WEEE lies with the PCS or producer so such costs should not be passed on.
In general, the expectation is that most producers will retain responsibility but interpretations vary.
Inevitably, also, institutions will have some historic waste which will not be replaced, hence they will be responsible for this and therefore the collection, recovery, treatment etc.
In general, compliance schemes (PCS), will manage the collection etc. Institutions can also use the PCS to manage WEEE on their behalf, at a charge.
There may be some discussion around the definitions of “like for like”, “equivalent function”, plus collection volumes and dates. BERR expect a reasonable and practical approach.
EAUC Insight Guide gives some examples of what would be acceptable or not acceptable.
January 13, 2019

6. Whole Life Costing in Purchasing Decisions
Product Pricing
WEEE segregation and collection arrangements
Other disposal arrangements (haz waste, internal costs, space, inventory management, arranging AATF contracts)
Current revenue generation
Another key aspect of best practice purchasing is whole life costing (WLC).
Balancing the capital and one-off costs against running costs, disposal costs, costs of change.
When buying EEE, one should factor in:
Product pricing – does it include the costs of managing WEEE or not?
May be offered dual pricing – not aware of such approaches yet but it is possible.
Segregation and collection arrangements – will there be single or multiple collections of WEEE at the end of the product life and the costs associated e.g. clearing computer resource rooms of machines – will some producers want to charge extra for additional collections, others not?
Costs of space – can you store items in a central point for collection? If not, multiple collection issue again
Cost of inventory management, recording and maintaining databases – will the needs vary for any of the producers
If some producers don’t want to retain responsibility for WEEE, they may offer price incentive – does that outweigh the costs of institutions setting up their own arrangements with an AATF?
It is not easy to predict the costs of disposal for a period 3 or 4 years ahead with which to compare against current pricing
Also, need to record prices paid, stating whether disposal is included, to avoid paying again in X years time.
Revenue generation – if institutions currently sell whole items to staff or students and some suppliers want to retain WEEE responsibility, having their own outlets for re-use, the loss of revenue should be factored into the purchasing decision to compare to producers that will continue to allow this flexibility on re-use.
January 13, 2019

7. Purchasing Issues for Consideration (1)
Tender and contract process
Specification
Contract terms
Questionnaires
Evaluation criteria/weighting
Financial checks
Contract and information management (inc. records of prices paid WEEE/not WEEE)
Marking of EEE
National and regional contracts
Supplier rationalisation
Research equipment
When buying EEE, need to cover the WEEE/ROHS needs within tender documents and processes. Guidance re what to include is available in the WEEE Working Group web page:
If supplier submits its contract terms, read them closely to establish whether it wishes to retain WEEE or not then decide whether the institution is willing to accept the obligation – risk v cost – back to the WLC equation
Evaluation criteria/weightings – need to build sustainability into the evaluation, including WEEE considerations.
These will only be one of many factors – commercial, functional, technical, quality, after sales service.
Need to put it into perspective – WEEE may not be a high priority in the wider evaluation
Check finances of suppliers – need strong finances to ensure that suppliers will remain in business. If an EEE producer ceases to trade, it is likely that the end user customer will take the WEEE responsibility.
Ask for suppliers to provide information about what has been purchased, when and by whom, as part of their contract – will help with management of WEEE collection.
Ask suppliers to advise where on the item, EEE will be marked so it can be checked on delivery.
Many contracts for EEE are national or regional – need to ensure that any WEEE requirements are fed to the teams managing those agreements/tenders.
Again, needs a perspective – there are many advantages to using these contracts which may outweigh the WEEE management issues for an institution
Need to ensure that information about producers’ approaches to WEEE is clear and available to the user community
Current information is not easy to find always
Think about strategies such as supplier rationalisation to assist with managing WEEE. E.g. reduce from 3 suppliers to one for PCs. 3 suppliers could mean 3 different PCS, and 3 different collection agents.
Analysis of NTUI spend showed that NTU used suppliers in 06/07 that collectively covered 24 PCS – a lot of potential collections.
Supplier rationalisation offers other benefits e.g. better pricing through greater commitment/economies of scale.
Research equipment will often be retained and used for lengthy periods (5 years plus). When purchasing such equipment, that falls under the scope of WEEE, it will be difficult for a producer to estimate what the disposal and handling costs would be in 5 or more years time. Whilst they cannot pass on the costs without your agreement, they may offer higher product prices to compensate for them therefore it may be worth the institution considering taking the responsibility for WEEE.
January 13, 2019

8. Purchasing Issues for Consideration (2)
Maverick buying
Leasing
Review of existing contracts
Legal enforcement
All institutions have maverick buyers that may commit them, albeit unwittingly, to obligations under WEEE. Need to keep them informed of the impacts of any purchasing and disposal decisions they make. May not be a major issue if most producers retain responsibility.
Equipment leasing certainly ensures producer responsibility and should form part of a whole life costing approach – compare buy v lease. Need also to consider whether lease gives usage flexibility. Often institutions will cannibalise owned machines to prolong the life of an item. This may be better from a sustainability perspective but some leases don’t allow this. About getting the right sustainability balance v commercial advantage.
Should review existing contracts to establish which ones would be covered by the WEEE scope, then request WEEE producer registration and PCS numbers for the relevant suppliers involved in those contracts. Also, try to establish how collestion and management of WEEE would work under those contracts.
Offences under the regs are punishable by fines. Worth asking questions of producers and PCS after the initial compliance period as to whether they have been fined under the regs. Helps to understand the degree to which they take their obligations seriously.
Also, if an institution takes responsibility for WEEE, then it would also be subject to prosecution and fines, should it be in default of the regs.
January 13, 2019

9. Overview of Current Supplier/Producer Practice
Compliance schemes
Range
Acceptability
Non-registered producers
Role of distributors
Contract clause variations
Variations in interpretation
Examples of supplier approaches
32 PCS registered with the Environment Agency, 5 further with SEPA
Information about schemes and their collection arrangements is not easy to find via websites
One scheme’s collection agent mentioned that they operate an IT distribution centre in Kenya. Whilst this is likely to be perfectly legitimate, it highlights the need to establish exactly what will happen to the WEEE after collection from institutional premises.
Researching the EA web site and compliance schemes identified a number of producers that weren’t registered but which appeared eligible. Institutions need to be aware or purchasing EEE from a non-registered producer as they would pick up the WEEE responsibility.
Distributors have no obligations under the regs. in respect of business to business WEEE, part from that they should be obtaining details of producer’s registration numbers and PCS scheme numbers so that they can be passed on to customers. Ensure that you include this obligation in tender documents. Approach of distributors is mixed – some are good at providing info, others less so.
There are some variations in interpretation by producers and research on some of the national HE contracts indicate that some terms have been agreed which qualify the obligations to a degree e.g. the contract for Storage/servers has clauses that state a minimum collection volume of 20 units, from a ground floor location, with an obligation on customers to use reasonable endeavours to assist the supplier to minimise costs. Clearly producers are taking responsibility for WEEE but with qualifications. The inference is that if an institution would have to store sufficient units or pay additional costs if a lesser number are available for collection. Similarly, if items are to be collected from a location other than ground floor, the institution would be liable for the additional costs.
One PC producer is taking WEEE responsibility on the basis that the collection service only covers one collection. Again the inference being that further collections would be at the institution’s expense. IT Resource Room clearance is not always possible in one operation, and space restrictions may disallow a single collection so there is a high likelihood that an institution could incur the costs of extra collections, which should be factored into the WLC evaluation when purchasing such equipment from suppliers that take this approach.
Some producers are totally committed to taking responsibility, some seem to interpret that they have no responsibility for historic waste, even thought it would be replaced by new EEE on a like for like basis, so need to check producer’s position.
January 13, 2019

10. Summary Think strategically about responsibility
Take a whole life costing approach
Ensure appropriate contractual and legal protection
Explore purchasing strategies to manage risk and costs
Consider whether it would be more cost effective to take WEEE responsibility and manage collection etc. yourselves, accepting that it would incur legal obligations
Use WLC to evaluate new purchases, factoring in internal costs of dealing with WEEE, and a perspective on risk compared to the functional, technical and commercial benefits
Ensure that contracts clearly state which party is to take responsibility for financing and managing WEEE
Explore strategies such as supplier rationalisation and leasing to manage WEEE
Producer approaches may vary, which could result in additional institutional costs. May wish to be flexible to take advantage if it is beneficial to so do, but need a clear understanding of costs/benefits to make such decisions
January 13, 2019