The proposal was put forward jointly by waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) compliance schemes ERP, Recolight and Repic as part of the Joint Trade Associations (JTA).
As a result of the decision, schemes that may have been unable to meet their targets for 2014 will have to register with accountancy firm Mazars, which will administer the system. Funds collected from the fee will be distributed to local authorities.
The revised WEEE regulations, which came into effect from January 2014, establish a system of household WEEE collection targets for producer compliance schemes. Under the regulations there is an option that should a scheme fail to meet its collection targets, it can pay a ‘compliance fee’ to meet the cost of its members’ obligations.
Proposals
Three proposals for how the compliance fee should be calculated were submitted in October. These included one from the JTA, which represents nine major trade associations in the electronic sector and works with producer-led compliance schemes ERP, Recolight and Repic; a joint submission by Dataserv, DHL, Transform, Valpak and Veolia; and, a separate proposal from the Environment Exchange (see letsrecycle.com story).
The decision to select the JTA proposal was confirmed in a bulletin sent out by the Environment Agency today (February 2), in which it stated: “Following their announcement last week regarding the compliance fee, BIS have asked us to inform you that the Secretary of State has approved the WEEE compliance fee proposal submitted by the Joint Trade Associations.
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“More information about how to access the fee will be available shortly. However, any scheme wishing to access the fee can register their interest with Rosanna Gotts at Mazars by emailing weeecompliancefee@mazars.co.uk. The system will be administered by Mazars LLP.”
Schemes that have been unable to secure sufficient WEEE evidence to meet their collection targets, as set out in March 2014 (see letsrecycle.com story), will be required to register with Mazars in order to comply with the law.
Fee
It is expected that some schemes will have to pay a fee. 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 (see letsrecycle.com story). However this could change when the final collection data for 2014 is received, with schemes having submitted their final data for the year last week.
The formula for calculating the compliance fee, as submitted by the JTA:
The level at which the fee is set is seen to be crucial to the functioning of the new WEEE system, as it is intended to act as an incentive to schemes to meet their collection targets, without the need to purchase evidence from schemes who may have collected more than they require.
The proposal submitted by the JTA, involves a sliding scale that sees schemes pay more in fees the further they are from their target. This is calculated by taking into account the average cost of transport and treatment for each stream.
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