The business community read with interest that that the government has taken concrete action to undo years of damage which the Eco Contribution Act had brought over the implementation of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive.

During a meeting with the Malta Chamber, Environment Minister Leo Brincat launched a consultation process to discuss the budget announcement of reforming the eco-contribution mechanism by eliminating the tax from electronic goods classified as WEEE items by September 2015.

The Malta Chamber believes this will reduce unnecessary burdens on the consumer while ensuring fairer competition among operators. Consequently, it declared at this meeting that it was willing to collaborate with the authorities in finding a long-lasting, workable and sustainable solution for the benefit of the business community and the country at large.

Most readers might not be aware that since Malta first joined the European Union in 2004, companies which put on the market Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EEE) are obliged under EU legislation to ensure that a percentage of those products are collected and recycled once EEE reaches its end-of-life.

The term ‘producer’ refers not only to manufacturers but also to reseller, importers and distant sellers of electrical and electronic equipment, wherein their activities make them responsible for compliance to the WEEE legislation.

So-called ‘producers’ are obliged to register with Mepa every year and provide sales, collection and treatment data by weight, directly to the authority. They are also obliged to arrange and finance the collection, treatment, recycling and safe disposal of WEEE, either on their own (what in technical jargon is known as being self-compliant) or by joining an authorised WEEE compliance acheme.

In essence, it was decided at the time to take a different approach and introduce the Eco- Contribution Act which essentially was an environmental tax imposed on a number of products ranging from electronic equipment to packaging, mattresses, batteries and accumulators, pneumatic tyres, etc.

Companies which had joined an authorised scheme to treat their waste were at the same time being obliged to pay eco-contribution

This resulted in a situation where operators were being taxed by the State on a number of products which did not absolve them from their obligations under the EU’s so-called producer responsibility.

In the process, companies were given no solution on how to fulfil their obligations because no schemes were licenced to handle WEEE and no fiscal remedy was introduced for the possibility of companies paying eco-contribution on top of expenses to dispose of the electrical waste directly or through a collective scheme.

Unfortunately, previous experiences with packaging and waste packaging which works on a similar system as WEEE were very negative. Companies which had joined an authorised scheme to treat their waste were at the same time being obliged to pay eco-contribution on a number of products essentially resulting in a double payment for a number of years.

To exacerbate the situation, enforcement of the packaging law was nonexistent and many operators were not fulfilling their obligation, ultimately leading to an unlevel playing field between compliant operators and others which were not.

In the end, the authorities at the time accepted the stance presented by the Malta Chamber and agreed to exempt companies from paying eco-contribution on packaging once they showed that they had joined a scheme. However, up to this present day, certain companies which had paid eco-contribution on top of fees to join a scheme still await balanced on refunds for the double payment that had resulted.

This is the situation we must at all costs avoid in the WEEE discussions. It is our opinion that government should make it clear from the start that the so-called “historic waste”, meaning EEE that was put on the market between the years 2007-2015, are exempt from any ulterior payments. As stated above, those operators that wished to be compliant with the law were denied the opportunity of doing so altogether.

The Chamber considers its recently held discussions with Mr Brincat as a step in the right direction and the majority of the proposals are welcomed from our side. Nevertheless, we remain at a loss on the way enforcement will be carried out and this is key to ensuring that past mistakes with packaging waste are not repeated with WEEE.

There is clearly no information on how this legislation will be enforced. The Chamber also requires clarification on the way “historic” waste will be treated and who will be liable for those years in which companies were paying eco-contribution.

The Malta Chamber is now in the process of formulating its recommendations to the amendments being proposed by the Ministry and is hopeful that its proposals will be favourably considered in the process of finding lasting and sustainable solutions to this matter.

Anton Borg is president of the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry.