These online retailers will now be responsible for the disposal costs of any product they place on the market in the UK.
The update comes as a result of a joint consultation held between 28 December 2023 and 7 March 2024 by the previous UK government, the Scottish government, the Welsh government and the Department of Agriculture Environment and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland (DAERA). The results of the consultation were also released today.
a joint consultation between the previous UK government, Scottish government, Welsh government and the Department of Agriculture Environment and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland (DAERA). It was held between 28 December 2023 and 7 March 2024.
Circular economy minister Mary Creagh said in a statement which accompanied the announcement: “Electrical equipment like vapes are being sold in the UK by producers who are failing to pay their fair share when recycling and reusing of dealing with old or broken items.
“Today we’re ending this: creating a level playing field for all producers of electronics, to ensure fairness and fund the cost of the treatment of waste electricals.
“As part of our Plan for Change, we are helping UK businesses compete and grow, and we continue to get more households recycling, cracking down on waste and ending the throwaway society.”
Scott Butler, executive director at Material Focus, added: “We welcome the government’s vital new reforms to the waste electrical regulations. FastTech items such as vapes, have swamped the UK market, with half a billion items bought in the past year alone. These small, cheap and too easily thrown away items contain valuable materials such as copper, gold, and lithium which are lost forever and could instead power our tech future.
“These changes to regulations will mean that online marketplaces, many of which are selling FastTech and other electricals, must take on their producer responsibilities and contribute their share of the costs of recycling them. Creating a separate category for vapes also means that those who have been profiting from the boom in their sales can be held responsible for providing public takeback, communications and most importantly pay for recycling them.”
A timeline for the changes has not yet been confirmed by the government.
Compliance scheme Recolight explained that it “would be logical” for the regulations to be made during 2025 to come into full force in 2026 as the WEEE system operates in calendar years.
Recolight CEO Nigel Harvey commented: “Recolight has campaigned to close the online marketplace WEEE loophole for many years. We’ve undertaken research that has shown the huge proportion of non-compliant product sold via such platforms.
“For example, one analysis showed that 76% of LED lightbulbs sold by a leading online marketplace were not WEEE compliant. For the 220 producer members of the Recolight WEEE scheme, this change cannot come too soon.”
What about kerbside collection for WEEE?
The Environmental Services Association (ESA) celebrated the news but also cautioned that the government should address the need for kerbside collection for WEEE.
Head of recycling policy at the ESA, Patrick Brighty, said: “The ESA strongly supports measures to minimise the risk of freeloading by overseas electronics producers who are not paying their way to ensure their products are recycled properly in the UK. This currently places additional burden on UK-based retailers, but today’s announcement helps to level the playing field and will generate additional funding for waste electrical recycling services.
“Thousands of tonnes of waste electricals, including millions of vapes, are binned instead of being correctly recycling in the UK every year and, in addition to being a waste of precious resources, pose a serious fire risk that costs the recycling and waste sector billions and put lives and critical infrastructure at risk. The ESA believes the best way to solve this growing problem is to properly fund and implement kerbside collections for WEEE across the country, rather than the postcode lottery of kerbside collections that exists today. While we welcome today’s announcement, the ESA urges government to commit to wider reforms of WEEE recycling services as part of its Circular Economy Strategy.”
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