Consultation on the UK WEEE Regulations is live

Introduction

The long-awaited consultation on the UK’s “Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2013” has been published by Defra.

The UK WEEE recycling rate is only 57%, and there is around 450,000t of WEEE disposed of through residual streams – government wants to see more WEEE reused and recycled by making it easier for households and others to access a collection.

The proposed changes will increase the costs to Producers and other organisations of complying with the Regulations, and require some additional data reporting.

The closing date for responses is 7th March 2023.

What are the key topics being consulted on?

There are two parts;

Consultation on specific reforms

This covers:

• Increasing collections of WEEE from households
• Increasing distributor collections infrastructure for WEEE
• New producer obligations for Online Marketplaces and Fulfilment Houses
• Dealing with the environmental impacts of vaping products
• System governance, the creation of a WEEE Scheme Administrator and performance indicators

Call for Evidence

To gather evidence and views to support additional, longer-term changes under consideration.

This covers:

• Full net cost recovery
• Allocation of costs for the collection and treatment of household WEEE
• Prevention of waste and increasing re-use of unwanted electrical and electronic equipment
• Moving to a circular economy through the design of better products and business models
• Increasing collections of business WEEE
• Improving treatment standards

The proposals are accompanied by an Impact Assessment.

When are changes expected?

The first changes could potentially be put into legislation in 2024 and implemented in 2025:

• New measures on online marketplaces
• Free collection of large domestic appliances by retailers on delivery of a new item
• Introduction of a new EEE category for vapes

From 2026, it is anticipated that the rollout of the collection system from households will start, along with other measures set out in the consultation.

Policy proposals arising from the call for evidence are likely to be phased in over a longer period of time.

Author: Jessica Dunlop, Membership Compliance Manager, ERP UK Ltd

How can I access the consultation?

For the Consultation click here 

Call for evidence click here

Responding to the consultation and call for evidence

As a scheme, ERP will be responding.

If you wish to submit your own response, you need to do so by 7th March. Details on how to respond are included on page 10 of the consultation document and page 6 of the call for evidence document.

ERP will continue to share information and updates with our members, so please look out for our communications!

How can ERP help?

If you are an ERP member and unsure of how these potential changes affect you, our compliance team are here to help, so please don’t hesitate to reach out to us by emailing ukcompliance@erp-recycling.org

Want to know more about our WEEE compliance service?

Visit our WEEE compliance webpage here

Alternatively you can contact us directly on:

Telephone: +44 (0)20 3142 6452 E-mail: uk@erp-recycling.org

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