BIS outlines criteria for WEEE compliance fee

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has published a set of criteria for organisations looking to submit a proposal for a compliance fee under the revised WEEE regulations.

The regulations, which came into effect in January, establish mandatory collection targets for each compliance scheme, with under-collecting schemes having to pay a fee for every tonne of WEEE they have been unable to collect or face sanctions for non-compliance.

Existence of the compliance fee is intended to discourage PCSs collecting volumes of WEEE significantly above their collection targets and then seeking to sell the surplus evidence to schemes seeking more evidence to meet their obligations.

Producers of electronic goods had claimed that evidence trading between schemes was inflating the cost of compliance with the old regulations.

Mechanism

The mechanism for calculating the compliance fee is to be changed yearly – with BIS accepting proposals to establish the fee for 2014 until September 30. The methodology for the fee will be announced in February 2015 which BIS claims will allow schemes sufficient time to pay it in line with the compliance deadline of March 31 2015.

According to BIS, the methodology for calculating the fee should be established in a way that encourages compliance through collection and treatment of WEEE via the network of CA sites across the UK.

The Department has asked for proposals setting out the proposed methodology for calculation of a compliance fee across each WEEE collection stream, as well as an argument in support of that particular system. BIS has also requested that proposals must outline the operator that will administer the compliance fee process and evidence of their suitability to run it.

A consultation on the proposals received by the Department will be carried out later in the year, running for a minimum of four weeks.

Veolia

In separate news, Veolia Environmental Services has announced that it has met its members obligations for the 2013 compliance period, ahead of the April 30 deadline for submitting final data.

Veolia collects from a total of 19 waste disposal authorities, with a total of 108 CA sites and has around 120 producer members.

Clement Gaubert Veolias WEEE scheme manager, said: We have worked closely with our local authority clients, reprocessing partners and other key stakeholders to ensure our scheme members now have compliance status in advance of the final deadline.