The government is set to review a number of proposals to harmonise the producer responsibility regimes for packaging, waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) and batteries as part of its bid to reduce the regulatory burden on businesses.
A discussion document on the proposals was issued jointly by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), Scottish Government, Welsh Government and Northern Irish Assembly in April, outlining 21 areas where it was felt that a greater degree of coherence could be achieved across the regimes.
Responses to the plans were published last week, showing that the majority of the proposals had the support of the 75 responding stakeholders, which included compliance schemes, producers, trade bodies and reprocessors (see letsrecycle.com story).
Among the proposals, the government said it will look in further detail at the introduction of a de minimis threshold across all three regimes – which would exclude similar sized small producers from the requirement to register with a compliance scheme.
A decision on plans for a de minimis level for producers of electronic goods appears to be close, with the government writing to small producers last week advising them to defer registration until it has confirmed its position on the issue with clarification due later this month (see letsrecycle.com story).
Charging
Government also indicated that it is keen to explore further the issue of introducing a two-tier charging system across all three producer responsibility systems with producers obligated to pay a fee for registration based on their size. Additionally, schemes would be subject to a subsistence charge which would be used to cover the Agencies costs in maintaining the compliance systems.
But, proposals to exempt certain waste streams with positive value streams were overwhelming rejected with over 15% of respondents backing the idea, while 47% said they were opposed to the plans.
Elsewhere, plans to extend the amount of evidence that can be carried forward from one reporting year to the next for both the WEEE and batteries regime were rejected. This would have brought them more closely in line with the packaging regime where evidence raised for waste material delivered for reprocessing in December can be brought forward into the next year.
Respondents suggested that this could present risks to the WEEE system as it could impact the ability of compliance schemes to meet their obligations.
Operational Plans
Views on the proposal to remove the requirement for compliance schemes to submit operational plans were split with 28% of respondents showing support for the measure, but 24% in opposition. Despite this opposition, government has said it will explore the option in further detail.
The three producer responsibility regimes derive from separate EU Directives covering waste packaging, batteries, waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). They are designed to ensure that producers bear the costs of collecting and recycling a proportion of the products they place on the market.
Changes have been proposed as businesses have claimed that significant differences between the regimes creates an excessive administrative burden on those operating in more than one sector.
Changes to the WEEE Regulations are due to come into effect from January 1 2014, making the UK compliant with the EUs Recast WEEE Regime, and overhauling the current system to reflect concerns of electronics producers that the cost of compliance outweighs the true cost of recycling.
Any resulting changes to the Packaging and Batteries Regulations are scheduled to be brought in on January 1 2015.
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