WEEE Compliance
Our compliance service can be tailored to suit your needs, we will manage your registration under the Regulations and take the load off your mind
The WEEE Directive affects producers, distributors and recyclers of electrical and electronic equipment including Household appliances, IT and telecoms equipment, audiovisual equipment (TV, video, hi-fi), lighting, electrical and electronic tools, toys leisure and sports equipment.
MT Waste Management offers a complete WEEE compliance service for manufacturers, retailers/resellers and importers.
Our compliance service can be tailored to suit your needs, we will manage your registration under the Regulations and take the load off your mind.
WEEE Law in Brief
The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations (the WEEE Regulations) implement provisions of the European Parliament and Council Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (2002/96/EC) (“the WEEE Directive”); with the exception of those covering the treatment of separately collected WEEE.
The WEEE Directive aims to prevent WEEE arising, to encourage reuse, recycling and recovery of WEEE and to improve the environmental performance of all operators involved in the lifecycle of electrical and electronic equipment, especially those dealing with WEEE. The Directive sets requirements relating to criteria for the collection, treatment, recycling and recovery of WEEE. It makes producers responsible for financing most of these activities; retailers/distributors also have responsibilities in terms of the take-back of WEEE and the provision of certain information. Private householders are to be able to return complete WEEE without charge.
Main Requirements of WEEE Regulations
The broad aim of the Directive is to address the environmental impacts of EEE when it reaches the end of its life and to encourage its separate collection, subsequent treatment, re-use, recovery, recycling and environmentally sound disposal. It also seeks to improve the environmental performance of all operators involved in the lifecycle of EEE. It sets requirements relating to EEE in terms of the marking of equipment and the provision of information for the separate collection of WEEE, re-use of WEEE as whole appliances, standards for its treatment at specific facilities and recycling and recovery to target levels. It makes the producers of EEE responsible for financing most of these activities.
Producers
Producers have a number of obligations under the WEEE Regulations:
•They must join a Producer Compliance Scheme (PCS) to discharge their obligations e.g. registering as a producer, reporting data on EEE put on the UK market and arrange the financing of any costs of collection, treatment, recovery and disposal of WEEE in line with their notified obligation;
•They must ensure the marking of EEE put onto the UK market to assist with its separate collection at the end of its life:
•They must make information available to treatment facilities in respect of new types of EEE they put on the UK market.
Distributors
A distributor, (irrespective of selling technique), for the purposes of the WEEE Regulations is:
•a retailer of new EEE for use in households; or
•A wholesaler of new EEE for use in households.
All distributors selling new EEE for use in households have obligations under the Regulations.
The main obligation on distributors is to provide a take-back service to householders enabling them to return their WEEE free of charge. The WEEE Regulations allow a choice of providing “in-store” take-back, participating in the Distributor Take-back Scheme (DTS), or providing an alternative system for free take-back for householders.
A further obligation placed on distributors is to provide householders with information on the options that are available to them for the free return of their WEEE and on the environmental benefits resulting from its separate collection. They are also required to maintain certain records.
Consumers
Consumers have no legal obligations under the Regulations. The Regulations encourage private householders to play their part in the separate collection of WEEE when it is discarded as waste.
Local Authorities
Local Authorities (LAs) have no direct legal obligations under the WEEE Regulations. However there are implications for LAs if they:
•Receive household WEEE deposited by residents at CA sites or Waste Transfer Stations (WTSs) in their waste disposal authority area; or
•Make bulky waste collections from residents in their local area.
LAs have the opportunity to secure free collection of WEEE separately collected at their CA sites or WTSs if these sites are registered as ‘Designated Collection Facilities` (DCFs).
WEEE Directive Scope
The WEEE Regulations apply to all electrical and electronic equipment placed on the market in the United Kingdom falling into any of ten product categories, unless the equipment is part of another type of equipment which does not fall into any of these categories. The Regulations also specify a voltage range into which the products in the ten categories must fall to be covered by the scope. This is up to 1,000 volts AC or up to 1,500 volts DC.
The ten product categories are:
1) Large household appliances
2) Small household appliances
3) IT & telecommunications equipment
4) Consumer equipment
5) Lighting equipment
6) Electrical and electronic tools
7) Toys leisure and sports equipment
8) Medical devices
9) Monitoring and control instruments
10) Automatic dispensers
The contents of this page were extracted from the 2004 DTI WEEE Regulations Guidance Notes pdf and from the 2006 BEER WEEE Regulations Guidance Notes pdf.