§ Mr. SheermanTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what steps he is taking to encourage the mobile phone industry to recycle discarded phones. [155100]
§ Ms HewittI have been asked to reply.
The European Information and Communications Technology Industry Association (EICTA), formerly European Trade Organisation for the Telecommunication and Professional Electronic Industry (ECTEL), have already initiated a UK mobile phone take back and recovery scheme on a voluntary basis. The Government welcome this scheme which pre-empts some of the likely 576W requirements of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE) currently being considered by the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament. The WEEE Directive is likely to result in increased levels of mobile phone recovery.
The initial ECTEL launch in 1997 involved only the mobile phone manufacturers—Alcatel, Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia, Panasonic and Philips. The extended scheme, re-launched in 1999, included the network operators—BT Cellnet, Orange, Vodafone, and One 2 One—who together with the mobile phone manufacturers are defined as "producers" for the dual branded mobile phones under the Producer Responsibility Initiative.
Under the Government's Producer Responsibility Initiative, industry is encouraged to take a share of the responsibility for what happens to their products at end-of-life and to take action to increase recovery and recycling rates. In "Waste Strategy 2000", the Government made clear their commitment to achieving substantial increase in recovery and recycling rates.