The Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) has opted for a proposal to introduce a new WEEE compliance fee. The proposition was put forward by waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) compliance schemes ERP, Recolight and Repic as part of the Joint Trade Associations (JTA).
Under the plan, schemes will be required to pay a fee if they are unable to meet their WEEE recycling targets. Such schemes will have to register for a fund-collection system administered by accountancy firm Mazars. Collateral which is collected through the scheme will be distributed to local authorities.
The revised WEEE regulations, which came into force from January 2014, set out a system of household WEEE collection targets for producer compliance schemes. The regulations allow for any scheme which fails to meet its collections targets to pay a ‘compliance fee’ to match the cost of its members’ obligations.
The proposal selected from the JTA on how the compliance fee should be calculated is one of three submitted in October and was confirmed in a bulletin sent out by the Environment Agency yesterday (February 2).
The fee will be calculated around the average cost of transport and treatment for each WEEE stream. It also includes a system to increase the fee incrementally depending on how far a PCS is away from its target.
How the fee is set is considered crucial to the functioning of the new WEEE system. The fee is intended to act as an incentive to compliance schemes to reach their collection targets without having to buy evidence from other which schemes which may have collected more than they need.
The latest WEEE data shows there is likely to be a shortfall in the amount of large domestic appliances (LDA) collected compared to the overall target.
Clarity Environmental Managing Director David Adams said: “We’re pleased by the BIS decision to appoint JTA’s proposal for the WEEE compliance fee.
“We’re however delighted to say that we will not have to rely on the new fee to ensure we comply for the 2014 period. Due to the success of our ‘Recycle with Clarity’ network, we have not only been able to meet our targets, but also attract more producers into our scheme for 2015.”
Any scheme who wishes to access the fee can register their interest with Rosanna Gotts at Mazars by emailing weeecompliancefee@mazars.co.uk. The law requires that schemes unable to meet their collection targets register with Mazars.