The forest of producer responsibility regulations across Europe have made compliance in many cases, a challenge.
As Frank Kurrat, the division manager for Recycling Solutions at Interseroh Dienstleistungs GmbH explained, manufacturers, importers or (online) retailers who place waste electrical and electronic equipment, batteries and packaging on the European market are confronted by a maze of national laws and regulations.
“Due to the lack of a central reporting and registration office, the registration has to be completed separately for each country and for each type of product and packaging. Then there is the fact that the statutory regulations differ from one country to the next, and in most cases, the legislation is only published in the respective national language. The risk of unintentionally breaking the law and being fined is correspondingly high, especially for small and medium-sized businesses, many of which do not have the requisite personnel resources or knowledge of the various foreign languages,” he said.
Looking for a way to provide practical support for these businesses, environmental services provider Interseroh, a member of Alba Group, has now established its new Umwelt Compliance Europa - UCE - unit, which is designed as a one-stop, central contact point for manufacturers, distributors and importers. Available as a full-service offering, this will enable these groups o comply with their product responsibility and the resulting registration and take-back obligations in the EU, the UK, Norway and Switzerland on a convenient and legally-compliant basis.
Services range from the analysis and selection of suitable country-specific licensing and take-back systems, to contract management and reporting.
“Companies can circumvent compliance risks,which gives them additional capacity for their core business,” noted Kurrat.
Not only is compliance with the statutory obligations under the European Directive on Packaging, the WEEE Directive and the EU Batteries Directive assured, the costs of compliance are lower due to having to deal with just one service provider.