The comments come alongside the revelation that businesses have met their targets to collect WEEE as set out by the government at the start of the year.
Changes to the WEEE regime in the UK were brought into effect in January 2014 as it was alleged that old legislation was too costly for producers of electrical goods, who are obligated to fund the recycling of waste electrical equipment.
The new system prevents the trading of evidence between compliance schemes, which it had been alleged was pushing up the cost of compliance with the WEEE regulations for producers.
Instead, compliance schemes are now set individual targets for the amount of WEEE they must collect, and if short of their target at the end of the year can pay a ‘compliance fee’ instead of purchasing WEEE from other compliance schemes at an inflated cost.
Target
The Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) set a target to collect a total of 490,000 tonnes of WEEE in 2014; a target which was met with 491,007 tonnes having been collected across the year, it was revealed today.
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The Department also estimates that the cost of compliance with the regulations, which were previously estimated to be in the region of £40-50 million per year for businesses producing electronic goods, have fallen by around £18 million as a result of the legislative changes.
According to a BIS spokesperson, the savings have been calculated using cost estimates and collection volumes in 2013 and 2014.
Commenting on the figures, business minister Matthew Hancock said: “I am committed to cutting red tape and freeing up business to create jobs and prosperity. By listening to industry through our Red Tape Challenge, we have improved the way we regulate the recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipment and, as a result, have saved firms in this industry almost £20 million in one year – at the same time as increasing the amount of fridges, freezers, computers and other products we recycle and beating our collection target.
“We are committed to working with businesses to identify areas that have gone well but also to identify what more can be done to build on a successful first year.”
| 2013 Collections (tonnes) | 2014 Collection target (tonnes) | 2014 collections* (tonnes) | |
| Large domestic appliances | 154,667 | 176,018 | 167,193 |
| Small mixed WEEE | 118,215 | 126,486 | 125,442 |
| TVs and Monitors | 100,255 | 77,187 | 84,164 |
| Fridges and freezers | 100,739 | 109,469 | 112,274 |
| Lamps | 834 | 840 | 1,933 |
| Total | 474,711 | 490,000 | 491,007 |
*figures from the WEEE Settlement Centre (subject to quality assurance checking by the environment agencies)
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