Retailers called on to help with TV recycling

By Patrick Avenell

SYDNEY, NSW: The Federal Government is expected to deliver its Regulatory Impact Statement (RIS) for television recycling within the next week. Product Stewardship Australia (PSA) executive officer John Gertsakis said this is an opportunity for all stakeholders to have their say.

As it stands, PSA and its member brands, including Panasonic, Sony, LG, Toshiba and Sharp, and the Government have been the major contributors to the discussion on how to handle the removal and recycling of end-of-life televisions. With the analogue television signal switch off imminent, pressure is now mounting for a workable and successful program to handle the television sets once they become obsolete.

Speaking to Current.com.au, PSA’s John Gertsakis said he expected a mixture of partially and fully mandated regulations, overseen by both federal and state governments. Once this is released, all interested parties, including consumer electronics retailers, will have the opportunity to contribute to the discussion.

“Whoever is interested in responding to the RIS is open to respond,” said Gertsakis. “If retailers see themselves as stakeholders, and they are: they’re distributing the product, then…it would make sense for retailers to get involved.”

Gertsakis said the two key stakeholders in this debate are the Government, who will be policing the regulations, and the suppliers, who will be funding it. Other stakeholders, however, are valuable to the process, and submissions from retailers, green groups, producers and the general public are also welcome.

For the PSA members anticipating the RIS, Gertsakis said there were a number of key issues to watch out for.

“In terms of PSA members, we’ll be looking to see what the different regulatory options look like: will those options be helping deal with freeriders, will those options be levelling the playing field and avoiding competitive disadvantage, will those regulatory options be delivering the best possible environmental outcome, will those options be cost-effective for PSA members.

“There are a whole range of issues like that that we’ll be looking for.”

Once the RIS is delivered, Gertsakis said the Federal Government had assured him that a final decision would be made in November.