Consumers will suffer price hikes as manufacturers are forced to pay for the collection and disposal of all old electrical goods under new regulations, it was warned tonight.
Retail Ireland said the new regulations would see industry pass on the costs of the environmentally-friendly proposals to shoppers.
"Unfortunately producers are seeking to shift the total cost burden for historic Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive onto the Irish consumer by means of a levy on the price of many new electrical and electronic goods," Torlach Denihan, director of Retail Ireland, said.
"The producer levy will be imposed on consumers from 13 August next. This will discredit the entire WEEE initiative, the cost of which was intended to be borne by producers and not by the consumer."
But Minister for Environment Dick Roche denied the new cost implications on the manufacturing industry would drive up the price of goods.
"I don't believe that is going to happen," Mr Roche said, adding that the disposal costs would be included in the price of goods all across Europe. He said:
"The cost of dealing in an environmentally-friendly way with waste electrical goods and equipment is going to be built into the cost of production in the same way as the cost of steel, or glass, or rubber, or any other parts they put into it."
Shops will have to take back old electric and electronic goods, once consumers are finished with them, under the WEEE directive.
Mr Denihan said the producers had ensured the right to impose a levy, called an environmental management charge.
Retail Ireland, which represents the sector, said under the regulations producers could insist retailers imposed a producer levy to cover the cost of disposal.
"The electrical goods industry in this country is worth in excess of a billion per year," Mr Roche said.
"The actual cost of the WEEE directive will be around €14 million a year and that is actually going to be part and parcel of the overall cost of producing and distributing any electrical goods."
Mr Roche said the new regulations would be applied strictly and manufacturers who failed to comply with the environmentally-friendly practice would face fines of up to €15 million or 10 years in jail.