Annual Report 2010 - Sens

Contents
Editorial 3 e-Recycling activities 4 New B2B solution for medical devices 5
SENS’s 20th anniversary celebrations 6 Third WEEE Forum conference in Zurich 7
Recycling companies’ meeting 8 Trends in the prices of materials 9 e-Recycling Roadshow 11
Increase in the ARF 11 Cost structure of the SENS collection points 12
Revision of the VREG / ORAREEA 13 ARF fund development 14 Balance sheet 17
Audit report 18 Annual Report19 SENS internal 20 Partner 22 Thanks 27
Editorial
Swiss take-back systems are “best in class”
SENS operates the oldest take-back system for
electrical and electronic appliances which is consistently
based on the principle of “producer and retailer
responsibility”. This is the case Europe-wide at least
and possibly even worldwide. Together with SWICO
and SLRS, SENS has managed to persuade producers
and importers that producer responsibility is the
correct principle to adopt. It didn’t do so with words,
but rather with a convincing and efficient take-back
system which meets the needs of industry and commerce
to optimum effect. The Swiss take-back system
ranks alongside its Swedish and Norwegian
counterparts as the “best in class” in Europe. Switzerland
is also the only country in Europe in which the
responsibility for financing take-back and recycling
rests completely with private enterprise.
Our representatives from the BAFU (Department of
the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications)
take great pride in presenting the Ordinance on
the Return and Recycling of Electrical and Electronic
Appliances (VREG) at international congresses. Compared
especially with the extensive and often complicated
legal regulations which are in force in the member
states of the EU, the VREG has repeatedly set
down markers in the implementation of WEEE directives
at national level thanks to the clarity and brevity
of the Ordinance, which is only eight pages long.
Despite its success, the BAFU is in the process of
revising the VREG ordinance. The current regulation
still makes it too easy for companies which are not
affiliated to any of the three take-back systems to
refuse to pay the ARF because they are not under
any legal obligation to do so. The revision is designed
to prevent the successful private-sector approach
being compromised because of a refusal by
the minority to cooperate. After all, everyone would
be disadvantaged by the alternative of a state solution
which would be more costly and less flexible.
Along with SWICO and SLRS, SENS monitors this
process within the “VREG monitoring group”, in
which all the affected stakeholder groups are represented.
We will do our utmost to ensure that the
great advantages of the current private-sector approach
can be implemented in a new VREG ordinance.
I am delighted to face up to these challenges together
with the SENS team and the members of the
Board of Trustees.
Andreas Röthlisberger, President
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