Econo-Weee and Biffa Transform win WEEE appeals

The decision by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills means that the two schemes, who between them have more than 600 producer members, have been approved for the period 2010-2012.

A BIS spokesperson confirmed that: “BIS has today (13 October) determined appeals from two WEEE Producer Compliance Schemes (PCS's) – Transform and Econo-WEEE who were appealing against the Environment Agency's decision not to grant their applications to be approved PCS's under the WEEE Regulations for the 2010, 2011 & 2012 compliance periods.

“The Secretary of State has concluded that the two schemes should be approved for the 2010-12 period.”

The ruling comes less than two weeks after the Environment Agency rejected the schemes' applications for re-approval (see letsrecycle.com story), with both schemes thought to have submitted operational plans which meant they had access to less WEEE than they required to meet their members' obligations.

Subsequently the Agency wrote to members of both schemes and told them that they should be aware they had been disqualified, stressing that they needed to be signed up a scheme that was approved for 2010 by October 15 (see letsrecycle.com story).

It then wrote to them again advising them that, until the appeals had been heard, no enforcement action would be taken against them for not having signed up to an approved scheme for 2010 (see letsrecycle.com story). 

With the decision coming before the October 15 deadline, the schemes will be hopeful that they will hold on to the majority, if not all, of their current members for the 2010 compliance period.

While the approval is for a three year period, under revisions to the WEEE regulations which are expected to come into force from January 1 2010 (see letsrecycle.com story), all schemes will be subject to annual reviews of their operational plans.

Reacting to the appeal decision, Biffa's director of environment and external affairs, David Savory, said: “We are delighted that common sense has now prevailed in this matter. The decision not to approve our application came as a complete surprise and we were very disappointed to find that the Agency immediately wrote to our customers advising them to register with another scheme.

“We were therefore forced to apply for urgent interim declaratory relief in the High Court on Friday 9th October. Mrs Justice Black accepted our application and granted an interim order approving the Transform scheme pending the appeal to the Secretary of State.

“The appeal became a formality after the Agency accepted that Biffa should be granted the requisite approval,” he added.

Biffa also said that it planned to hold further discussions with the Environment Agency in a bid to agree what actions need to be taken in the future.

BIS has said that it will publish copies of the decisions on its website later this week.