A Missed Opportunity
I think that the WEEE charges are a real missed opportunity. By making the customer pay a fee for recycling, we have let the manufacturer off scott-free to continue to package and manufacture goods without having to worry too much about how difficult it is to recycle.
We could have gone the way of some of our European neighbours in the past, and made the manufacturer/distributor responsible for the disposal of the goods. Instead of going bust, market competition kicked in and customers got packaging that was more easily disposed of (natural popcorn (coated) is still used as packing material for some white goods in Germany, as it is fully bio-degradable!). This was used as part of reducing the cost to the company of recycling, hence bringing the price down, allowing greater competitiveness.
With the current scheme here, there is very little advantage to manufacturers to make their goods and packaging more recyclable - the customer picks up the tab anyway!
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