About Us

Econo-Weee Limited

The Scheme's management consists of a compact team of highly-qualified and highly-experienced individuals who, between them, have over 100 years experience of environmental and waste issues. These are:

Mr John L.D. Kerr, Director

John holds an honours degree in chemistry, an honours degree in science and environmental technology and also has qualifications in law at university level. He has been an environmental consultant for over 20 years, beginning at the National Chemical Emergency Centre at Harwell Laboratory in 1988. At the end of 1995, John established his own environmental consultancy, Acquisition & Environmental, specialising in legal compliance. In addition to WEEE, his main area of expertise centres on the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 2007, dealing with this legislation on behalf of over 30 clients with a combined turnover in the region of £14 billion.

He has a thorough knowledge of UK and EC environmental legislation and policy and, over the past 20 years, has completed a large number of projects ranging from business strategies and international studies to legal compliance audits and environmental management systems.

 Mr David J. Adams, Director

David's background is in waste management and he has in the past held an operator's licence to run a fleet of roll-on/roll-off and tipper vehicles and a WAMITAB certificate for the operation of inert landfill sites. He has also held posts as collection representative and landfill negotiator with two of the UK's largest waste companies. In 2002, David established API Trading Ltd, a company that deals in the brokerage of Packaging Waste Recovery Notes and their export equivalents (P(E)RNs) to producers and schemes regulated under the Packaging Waste Regulations. In 2008, API handled some 360,000 tonnes of P(E)RNs, a task that requires considerable administrative skills.

Prof. Stuart J. Bell, Non-executive Director

Currently Head of the Law Department at the University of York, Stuart is a barrister, the former Professor of Environmental Law at Nottingham Law School and has worked as a consultant to the regulatory team at Eversheds solicitors. He has advised on projects ranging from the construction of hospital incinerators to the defence of prosecutions brought under the Environmental Protection Act 1990. His clients have included utilities in the water and electricity sectors, waste management companies, chemical companies and institutional organisations such as the Environment Agency. Internationally, he has undertaken research projects for Governments in Australia and Armenia and other bodies such as the European Commission, DEFRA and the World Health Organisation.

Stuart has written extensively on the subject of environmental law. He is a joint author of the well known text book Environmental Law and has acted as a Consultant Editor for Halsbury's Laws of England, Volume 38, Protection of Environment and Public Health. He is also an Editor of the Environmental Law Reports, the Encyclopaedia of Environmental Law, and the Journal of Planning and Environmental Law. He has a particular interest in waste regulation, producer responsibility and contaminated land. He has spoken at national and international conferences and written various academic papers on these topics.

Dr Ken Westlake, Consultant Auditor

Ken has almost 20 years experience of waste management consultancy and training, undertaking work in a number of overseas countries as well as the UK. With a history that includes the study of the microbiology of landfill sites, landfill management consultancy, contaminated land and environmental management and audits, Ken has also lectured on hazardous waste management at Loughborough University. After a spell as a consultant with the Centre for Research into the Built Environment and Land Quality Management, he established Westlake Associates in 2000.

In recent years, Ken's work has focused on sustainable waste management options where, for instance, he has advised on the establishment and infrastructural requirements for municipal waste composting in Uruguay. While working in Oman on the development of a strategic Masterplan for sludge and solid waste, he wrote the principles of control and legislation that should apply within any regime for the management of solid wastes.

Through training activities for the Environment Agency (1996 - current) and CIWM (2000 - current) he has a very good understanding of waste-related legislation including auditing requirements in support of specific issues such as the duty of care and ISO 14001 environmental management systems.

Dr Steve Waring, Consultant Auditor 

Steve is a Chartered Engineer and Chemist with over 30 years experience of waste management, resource efficiency and pollution prevention. He has operated in numerous industry sectors including chemicals, furniture, engineering, glass, electronics and the waste management sector itself. He has been a project manager or lead expert on several International Projects in EU Accession countries in his specialised areas, and has been a lead trainer for the Environment Agency since 1999, training over 1000 staff.