OG wrote:

In the UK on the other hand, because we have such a supine 'business
friendly' establishment, the regulations were framed to allow retailers to

The UK interpretation of the regulations is so complex as to be a
consultants dream of a gravy train. The upshot is that many business
have simply ignored them as they can't see any workable way of
implementing them, plenty can't even work out if they even apply to them
in the first place.

buy their way out of their responsibilities and contribute to an 'industry
wide' scheme that raised money, gave it to local authorities and said "OK,
you get rid of the problem for us".

There are a number of companies that have packaged a service for
compliance, but these are rather expensive at the moment.

The outcome is that your local authority pays whatever it costs for getting
rid of WEEE, your Council Tax increases to meet any shortfall in cost, and
the retailers and manufacturers absolve themselves of responsibility.

I would guess Jo public prefers it that way. They like paying low prices
for their electronic stuff and seem to mind less the indirect costs that
add up as a result of this. If you require that the retailers or
manufacturers[1] shoulder the cost of handling it, then you can expect
the costs to be passed directly onto the customer.

[1] Obviously manufacturers of EE are far harder to tax since they are
not usually in the country of consumption these days.

--
Cheers,

John.

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