What is the common feature between a washing machine, a video-cassette recorder, a computer and an electric train? They all run on an electric battery, either disposable or rechargeable, and thus, are targeted by the Decree of July 20^th 2005, which provides for the setting-up of a system for recycling and eliminating WEEE – Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment. WEEE grows 3 to 5% per year, and already generates 1.7 million tonnes of waste every year. The hazard from these products lies in the harmful substances they can contain and the way they are handled at the end of their working life. The quantity of WEEE coming from private households is estimated to be 14 kgs per capita per year and a first objective has been given to 4 kgs per capita per year of WEEE collected.

 

How does this work practically? Perhaps you’ve already noticed it: since November, each item of household equipment and hi-fi product purchased has an ecological levy charged on it. This varies from a few centimes to tens of euros. This eco-contribution finances the cost of collecting and recycling old products (put on the market before August 13^th 2005, also called “historical waste”). In exchange, retailers are committed to taking back, on a 1 to 1 basis, used equipment when similar items are purchased, and they pass those products on to eco-organisations for processing at the end of their working life.

 

The PPR group is doubly concerned by this Decree, since it is both a retailer and a producer of waste from electrical and electronic equipment. Accordingly, for the past two years its retail companies have conducted a vigorous drive, in cooperation with Eco-système, to supply consumers with uniform, transparent information on the system for collecting and processing these products. Eco-système, the only such organisation having retailers among its members, is planning to disseminate 24 million informative booklets, of which some three million will be available to consumers at PPR group stores.

 

Besides this, the retailers have trained 17,000 employees (salespeople, sales advisers, logistics experts, cash-desk clerks, accountants, after-sales service staff, etc.) to enable them to answer their customers’ enquiries and cater for their needs. In the stores, the products concerned by the new regulations are now identified by notices, display stands and waste-product collection points recognisable by specially-designed signing. The eco-contribution levy will remain the rule for five to seven years according to product. Beyond that time, the equipment marketed before 2005 will have been replaced, and the eco-contribution levy will by then have become a component of the product’s price.