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Industry to make waste submissions

Kimberly Guest
By Kimberly Guest, ITWeb contributor
Johannesburg, 10 Apr 2007

Despite the disappointing turnout to a workshop on the Waste Management Bill, the IT Association says it will send a consolidated submission to the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT).

Last week's workshop saw representatives from Mustek, Siemens, HP, Non-Ferrous Shredders, Anglo e-Waste, Desco Recycling and the Tshwane Municipality discuss the potential impact of the Bill should it go through in its current state.

Organiser and GM of the IT Association Delanie Bezuidenhout says several concerns were raised during the session.

"The primary concern was with regards to the definition of waste. If end-of-life products such as computers are classified as waste, then all take-back centres and e-waste collection points will need to apply for waste management licences. The implication for industry is that vendors would then need a licence to retrieve end-of-life equipment," she explains.

Delegates also said DEAT would need to define exactly who they include in the term "producer". The consensus was that instead of referring to "producer", it should rather read "manufacturer/importer". This would cover the main players in the market, who could then escalate the responsibility down to vendors and distributors.

"It has become evident that when the Bill is passed, we will need to draft an industry-specific regulation focusing on e-waste as a specific waste stream," notes Bezuidenhout.

Industry has until the close of business today to send submissions to the IT Association. These will be consolidated into a single representation to be sent to DEAT on Thursday.

Once submissions have been investigated and incorporated where appropriate, the Bill will be submitted to Cabinet, which will forward it to Parliament. It is expected that Parliament will receive the revised Bill in June.

"The Bill will again be open for public comment once it reaches Parliament, but for a very limited period of time. DEAT hopes to have the Bill gazetted soon after," warns Bezuidenhout.

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