Related links:

WEEE Regulations (UK) DCF Code of Practice Treatment Guidance EU guidance on WEEE

Welcome to the letsrecycle.com section on electronics recycling.

The UK generates about 1.9 million tonnes of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) each year from domestic and commercial sources.

Under the WEEE Regulations, brought in on July 1, 2007, producers of electrical appliances - both manufacturers and importers - are responsible for collecting and recycling waste electronics from both households and businesses.

Complying with Europe's WEEE Directive (2003), the regulations make producers pay producer compliance schemes to arrange for collections of WEEE from designated collection facilities (DCFs), and for collected items to be recycled at approved authorised treatment facilities (AATFs).

Many of these DCFs are run by local authorities, and may take the form of household waste recycling centres, civic amenity sites or waste transfer stations. Householders can take their old electrical goods to the sites, where they are gathered for onward transportation by a compliance scheme or partner firm to be recycled.

Both collection and recycling facilities issue the producer compliance schemes with evidence to show that received goods have been recycled to meet both EU recycling targets and environmental protection conditions. A 'Settlement Centre' has been set up to co-ordinate the flow of this WEEE recycling evidence.

The UK comfortably exceeded the Directive's first household WEEE collection target of 4kg of equipment per head per year in 2007 and 2008. However, since its inception the UK system has been affected by concerns over how some producer compliance schemes have gone about meeting their members' obligations, and calls to increase public awareness of the need to recycle WEEE.

Revised UK regulations came into force in January 2010, and a recast of the EU WEEE Directive is also underway, although agreement on this is not expected until late 2010 at the earliest.

 

To follow the progression of WEEE recycling in the UK, as reported by letsrecycle.com, click on the dates below:

June 2010: The European Parliament has called for the introduction of an ambitious 85% WEEE collection target as part of the recast of the WEEE Directive.

June 2010: The annual Recycle Week campaign took place, with a focus on small WEEE.

May 2010: Conservative MP Mark Prisk has been handed a ministerial brief that includes responsibility for WEEE.

March 2010: EnvironCom has opened what it claims is the UK’s largest WEEE reprocessing plant, at Grantham in Lincolnshire.

March 2010: The UK increased both the tonnage and percentage of household WEEE collected for recycling in 2009, new figures have revealed.

February 2010: The European Parliament has rejected European Parliament proposals to make producers responsible for financing the collection of WEEE from households as part of the recast of the EU WEEE Directive.

February 2010: The WEEE system is expected to run more smoothly this year after new government figures showed that compliance schemes are relying less on trading to meet their obligations.

January 2010: The Environment Agency has secured the first ever prosecution for a breach of the WEEE Regulations.

December 2009: BIS has revealed that agreement on the recast of the EU WEEE Directive is not expected to be reached until late 2010.

November 2009: Revised WEEE regulations that are set to come into force in January 2010 have been published by BIS.

October 2009: Econo-Weee and Biffa's Transform scheme have both won appeals against the Environment Agency's decision not to re-approve them as WEEE compliance schemes for 2010 and beyond.

October 2009: Biffa's Transform scheme and Econo-Weee are among the nine WEEE producer compliance schemes not named on the Environment Agency and SEPA's approved lists of schemes for 2010

September 2009: One of the UK's largest reprocessors has called more to be done to raise public awareness of the need to recycle small WEEE if the UK is to meet higher recycling targets.

August 2009: The government has written to all WEEE compliance schemes following last month's judicial review ruling outlining just how it expects them to work together to meet their members' obligations.

July 2009: REPIC has failed in its legal challenge over how the WEEE system operates.

July 2009: Councils across England and Wales are set to be given the chance to run their own WEEE awareness campaigns after the success of a pilot scheme run earlier this year.

June 2009: A High Court judge has delayed his decision on REPIC's judicial challenge of the WEEE system, as a three-day hearing comes to an end.

June 2009: As the deadline for submitting their final Declaration of Compliance passes, a number of WEEE schemes have claimed they have met their obligations for the 2008 compliance period.

May 2009: The UK recycled 6.79 kilograms of household WEEE per head of population in 2008, figures published by BERR have revealed.

April 2009: BERR has revealed concerns over the impact the EU's proposed changes to the WEEE Directive could have on businesses, as it launched a consultation on the recast.

March 2009: WEEE producer compliance scheme REPIC has applied for a judicial review claiming that there are loopholes in the UK system.

February 2009: BERR has introduced interim measures to keep the WEEE system working in the face of falling prices for metals and plastics.

February 2009: Hampshire county council has said it will launch an inquiry over claims that an item of waste electrical equipment from one of its CA sites was illegally exported to Nigeria.

December 2008: BERR has launched a consultation on draft revisions to the WEEE regulations.

December 2008: The long-awaited awareness campaign for WEEE has finally been launched by BERR in the lead-up to Christmas.

December 2008: The European Commission has published proposals to revise the WEEE Directive, including a new way of setting national targets.

October 2008: WEEE reprocessors have warned that the falling value of metals and plastics will raise gate fees for producer compliance schemes.

July 2008: WEEE producer compliance schemes appear to have met their obligations for the 2007 compliance period, but there are concerns the situation will be repeated for 2008.

June 2008: The final deadline for WEEE compliance has passed amid concerns that as many as seven schemes are non-compliant.

May 2008: Significant delays in reconciling data for the recycling of WEEE have forced BERR to delay publication of obligation tonnages for compliance schemes.

April 2008: The EU has launched a public consultation on a review of the WEEE Directive, with the aim of introducing a new mandatory collection target before the end of the year.

For stories previous to this, please visit the WEEE news archive