New guidance to help businesses comply with updated WEEE regime published

The guidance explains the requirements that the draft WEEE Regulations would place on businesses, public and third sector organisations and individuals involved in the sale, purchase and disposal of WEEE from 1 January 2014. It is intended to provide specific advice over and above EU-level guidance on the new regime, and will be revised once that guidance has been finalised.

The WEEE Regulations will implement the EU's recast WEEE Directive into UK law from 1 January 2014. As confirmed last month, the UK Government intends to set mandatory collection targets for WEEE compliance schemes from this date, backed with a compliance fee. Producers of electrical and electronic goods (EEE) above certain thresholds would be required to join one of these compliance schemes.

The recast WEEE Directive introduces an initial collection target of 45% of electronic equipment sold from 2016, rising to 65% of equipment sold or 85% of waste generated from 2019. In addition, from 2018 the rules will apply to all types of electronic waste by ending many exemptions for old or difficult-to-collect items.

The guidance is broken down into different sections setting out what producers and distributors of EEE, producer compliance schemes and local authorities will have to do to comply with their new obligations. It also contains a section of relevance to consumers of household EEE. Consumers do not have any legal obligations under the WEEE regime, but EU member states should encourage them to participate in separate collections and make designated collection facilities available to them.

Distributors of EEE are already required to accept items of household WEEE equivalent to new items of EEE that they sell to consumers irrespective of when and where the original item brought for disposal was originally purchased. Once the new regime is in force, retailers of EEE above a certain size will also be liable to take back "very small" WEEE less than 25cm in length from consumers free of charge, without placing any obligation on the consumer to buy EEE of an equivalent type. Distributors are exempt from this requirement if an alternative existing collection scheme is "likely to be at least as effective".

Compliance scheme targets will be calculated with reference to the amount of new material placed onto the market by that scheme's members, and schemes will be made aware of their collection requirements by 31 March of the relevant compliance year, according to the guidance. Although BIS is yet to confirm the methodology it will use to set the compliance fee, which schemes will be liable to pay if they miss their individual collection targets, this will be "set at a level that incentivises the collection of WEEE" as a means of the scheme fulfilling its obligations, according to the guidance.

The guidance states that the compliance fee, and the mechanism used to set it, may change between compliance years. However, only one methodology will be approved for any given compliance period. The methodology will consider the various costs associated with the collection, treatment, recovery and environmentally-sound disposal of the five WEEE collection streams from all routes, and any fees collected will be reinvested into the collection network, in a way that particularly recognises the role played by local authorities, according to the guidance.

The impact of the new regulations on local authorities will be the same as that under the previous regulations, according to the guidance; although local authorities will now have the option to self-treat specific types of waste deposited at their designated collection facilities. Local authorities will be able to keep any revenue raised from handling this waste, but will also have to absorb any costs. According to the guidance, local authorities that choose to self-treat one or more WEEE streams will be required to notify BIS of their intentions by 31 January of the relevant compliance period, and include details of the amount of that type of WEEE collected in the previous year.