Recolight CEO elected Vice-Chairman of European light recycling organisation
Nigel Harvey, CEO of lighting recycling compliance scheme Recolight, has been appointed Vice-Chairman of EucoLight, the European association of lamp and lighting collection and recycling organisations, at the third EucoLight annual conference, at which 18 lighting waste electronic and electrical equipment (WEEE) compliance schemes reaffirmed their commitment to creating a circular economy for lighting.
The conference, held over 18-20 April in Sassenheim, the Netherlands, saw 70 delegates from the producer responsibility community for lighting gather to discuss developments in collection and treatment of end-of-life lighting products, as well as market trends and the expected evolution of lighting waste flows and LED technology.
Delegates discussed how collection rates could be improved through more efficient operations, changes in consumer behaviour andsupportive policy mechanisms in order to reach the targets set by the 2009 WEEE Directive. In 2017, the UK’s lamp recycling rate increased to 48.5 per cent, but missed the government’s collection target, collecting 5,383 tonnes of lighting WEEE, falling short of the target of 6,132 tonnes.
While LED lighting is becoming more and more popular, it currently represents only two per cent of the lighting waste stream due to the long life of the products, and delegates discussed future options for the recycling of LED lighting appliances, while learning more about its technical composition.
The extended producer responsibility (EPR) requirements in the EU’s recently approved Circular Economy Package (CEP) were welcomed by delegates keen on ensuring a level playing field in order to advance a circular economy for lighting, along with calls for more action against online freeriders, who are able to place products on the market while avoiding the responsibilities of being a ‘producer’.
Commenting on this work, Nigel Harvey said: “We are pleased to be working with EucoLight to address non-compliance associated with online sales. We think that the adoption, in the UK, of the amendments to the Waste Directive will help achieve this.”
Harvey will now assume the role of Vice-Chairman of EucoLight, having been elected to the Board of Directors by the EucoLight General Assembly. Hervé Grimaud from ESR/Récylum will take the role of Chairman, while Stephan Riemann from Lightcycle will become Treasurer, Tomáš Rychetský from Ekolamp in the Czech Republic takes the role of Secretary, and Ourania Georgoutsakou of Belgium’s LightingEurope takes her place as a Member of the Board.
The third edition of the EucoLight Light Recycling awards also took place during the conference. This year the winners included: a project focused on the collection of luminaires from LithtRec/Wecycle in The Netherlands; an awareness raising campaign regarding the UK lamp collection target, which also promoted free recycling for end users, from Recolight; a communication campaign celebrating ten years of Recolamp in Romania, and the foundation of the Lauterer Wettbewerb association in Germany dedicated to detecting and combating freeriding cases presented by Lightcycle.
