The news comes despite uncertainty over whether the target for 2014 has been fully met.
The final 2015 target, which was revealed to compliance schemes last week sets out the amount of evidence that they will be required to collect for each category of WEEE generated. For 2015 that will mean that schemes will be obligated to collect 506,878 tonnes of WEEE throughout the year.
Plans for the 2015 were launched for consultation by BIS last month although the Department has lowered the final target compared to its original proposal of 508,000 tonnes.
According to BIS, the overall target is significantly above the collection levels necessary to achieve the EU Member State target of 484,661 tonnes for 2015.
BIS has opted to increase the target from the 490,000. Some categories, including large household appliances have seen collection targets drop compared to 2014. Schemes will be required to collect 174,730 tonnes of large household appliances compared to 176,018 tonnes in 2014.
In its document outlining the changes BIS explained: “The 2013 WEEE Regulations require the Secretary of State to set the amount of WEEE falling within each category of EEE that is to be financed by producers via their membership of a producer compliance scheme (PCS). Comments were invited on a discussion paper circulated to key stakeholder groups on Tuesday 3 March.
“The overall UK WEEE collection target for 2015 is 506,878 tonnes. This is about 16,000 tonnes higher than the total amount of household WEEE collected and recoded as evidence on the Settlement Centre in 2014.”
2015 WEEE target
Confirmation of the 2015 target comes after business minister Matthew Hancock announced that the UK had exceeded its target to collect 490,000 tonnes of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) in 2014 – the first year since new regulations on WEEE recycling were brought into effect.
The Department’s figures were based on the amount of WEEE evidence recorded by compliance schemes at the WEEE settlement centre. This data suggested that some 491,007 tonnes of WEEE had been collected and treated across the year.
However, the Environment Agency has subsequently published data detailing how much WEEE was treated by Approved Authorised Treatment Facility (AATF) operators – who are responsible for issuing WEEE evidence.
Target
The government has maintained that as the Agency’s figures are provisional and do not take into account late submissions from schemes, they are likely to come into line with the governments figures. It is expected that figures will be published shortly confirming that the target has been met.
The new WEEE regulations, which came into effect from January 2014 replaced a system of ‘evidence trading’ between schemes, instead giving them each an individual target based on the volume of new products their members have placed onto the market.
Under the new system, schemes that are unable to meet their target can instead opt to pay a ‘compliance fee’ rather than purchasing WEEE from other compliance schemes at a potentially inflated cost.
- For an in-depth discussion on the UK’s WEEE system join letsrecycle.com on June 4 in London for the 2015 WEEE Conference.
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