The Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) has confirmed that three proposed mechanisms for setting a WEEE compliance fee mechanism for 2015 have been submitted.
Among them is a proposal by the Joint Trade Associations, which includes compliance schemes ERP, Recolight and Repic, whose proposal was adopted by BIS to set the WEEE compliance fee for 2014. The group claims that its membership represents 90% of the WEEE producer obligation in the UK.
BIS has confirmed submission of three WEEE compliance fee mechanisms
JTA’s 2014 mechanism resulted in around £375,000 having been collected from compliance schemes who failed to meet their recycling obligations. The money is due to be distributed to local authority WEEE projects
BIS can choose to use the compliance as part of the revised WEEE regulations, which came into effect from January 2014.
The regulations establish a system of household WEEE collection targets for producer compliance schemes. Should a scheme fail to meet its collection targets, it can pay a ‘compliance fee’ to meet the cost of its members’ obligations.
The fee is determined after the end of each compliance year, and schemes will not learn how much they will be required to pay through the fee until after every scheme has submitted its final evidence.
Commenting on the announcement, chairman of the JTA and technical manager at the Association of Manufacturers of Domestic Appliances, Richard Hughes said:
“The compliance fee is a vital element of the UK’s WEEE system. It ensures that where a PCS has not fully met its target through collections during the compliance period, it has a legitimate alternative route to compliance. This has helped to deliver an estimated £18 million of savings from the UK WEEE System, supporting the government’s agenda to cut business red tape.”
Following a consultation on the proposals, BIS will announce its decision as to which methodology will apply from around February 2016. Any schemes which fall short of their collection targets in 2015 will be liable to pay the fee in accordance with the chosen method from that date.
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