you are here // Home > WEEE Directive

WEEE Directive

WEEE is the fastest growing waste stream in the UK. The WEEE Regulations aim to reduce the amount of this waste going to landfill, and increase recovery and recycling rates by setting targets for the collection, reuse and treatment of WEEE

There are certain requirements for WEEE relating to:

separate collection, disposal and recycling
standards for its treatment at authorised facilities
collection, recycling and recovery targets

What is WEEE?

The regulations divide WEEE into 10 categories:

Large household appliances
Small household appliances
IT & telecommunications equipment
Consumer equipment
Lighting equipment
Electrical and electronic tools
Toys, leisure and sports equipment
Medical devices
Monitoring & control equipment
Automatic dispensers

The WEEE Regulations apply to electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) in the above categories with a voltage of up to 1000 volts AC or up to 1500 volts DC.

The regulations have significant implications for importers, producers, retailers and users of EEE, and for those who treat or recover WEEE.

Your environmental regulator will enforce the producer responsibility aspects of the WEEE regulations. This is the Environment Agency in England and Wales, the Environment and Heritage Service in Northern Ireland and SEPA in Scotland.

The WEEE Regulations apply to businesses that:

manufacture electrical and electronic equipment (EEE)
import EEE
re-brand EEE
distribute EEE
sell EEE
store EEE
treat EEE
dismantle EEE
recycle EEE
dispose EEE
use EEE.

WEEE equipment producer compliance

Under the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations you are a ‘producer’ if you manufacture, import or re-brand electrical and electronic equipment (EEE).

Register as a producer

If you are an EEE producer you must join a producer compliance scheme and be registered with your environmental regulator by 15 March 2007. When you join a producer compliance scheme, they will register for you. You cannot register directly with your environmental regulator.

You will be given a producer registration number. You must give this number to your distributors when you sell EEE.

Provide information

You must provide certain information on new EEE to assist treatment and re-use. This includes information on the components and materials in the EEE, and the location of any hazardous substances.

Mark your products

You must mark all goods with the crossed out wheeled bin symbol. This will help separate WEEE from other waste streams. You need to include a producer’s identification mark. You must also show that the product was placed on the market after 13 August 2005; a thick bar underneath the wheeled bin symbol can be used to show this.

Collection and treatment of WEEE

You are financially responsible for collecting, treating, recovering and disposing of an equivalent amount of WEEE that is calculated according to the amount of EEE that you produce.

You must arrange and meet the cost of the dismantling, recovery, and in particular the reuse and recycling of WEEE. This must be done in an environmentally sound way.

You must make sure that all separately collected WEEE is taken only to approved authorised treatment facilities (AATF), where WEEE can be treated safely prior to recycling or disposal.

You can arrange for your producer compliance scheme to collect, treat and recycle WEEE for you.

Responsibility for historic WEEE (products on the market before 13 August 2005) will be shared out between all producers, depending on their market share. This waste will be designated as yours; therefore, you will not only be responsible for your own products. Your environmental regulator will advise you of this obligation. The collective producer responsibility for historic WEEE will end in 2013.

Producer compliance schemes

You must join a producer compliance scheme by 15 March 2007. Make sure that your environmental regulator has approved the scheme.

The environmental regulators will approve producer compliance schemes during January and February 2007. For details of prospective producer compliance schemes email WEEE@dti.gsi.gov.uk

Compliance schemes report to your environmental regulator.

Your producer compliance scheme will:

register you as a producer with your environmental regulator
report information to your environmental regulator on the amount of EEE you put on the UK market, by category and type of intended user
provide you with information from your environmental regulator
take responsibility for separately collected WEEE.

Your producer compliance scheme can also arrange to meet collection, treatment and recycling obligations on your behalf.

If you arrange to meet your collection, treatment and recycling obligations yourself, you must provide evidence to your producer compliance scheme. This evidence will be a standard evidence note, which you must keep for a minimum of four years. You can only get evidence of treatment and recycling from approved authorised treatment facilities (AATFs) and approved exporters.

Producers should note that the Regulations differentiate between ‘household’ and ‘non-household’ WEEE

Household WEEE

If you sell EEE for household use, your producer compliance scheme is responsible for household WEEE collected through designated collection facilities. The amount they collect depends on the amount of EEE you sell.

Non-household WEEE

When you sell EEE for non-household use your producer compliance scheme is responsible for collecting, treating and recycling:

WEEE being replaced by the EEE you sell, if it was originally purchased from you or another producer, before 13 August 2005
EEE you have sold since 13 August 2005, when it is discarded as WEEE.

Negotiating obligations for non-household WEEE

You can negotiate WEEE responsibilities with non-household EEE users. You can agree to transfer obligations for WEEE that is being replaced or for new EEE when it becomes WEEE and is discarded.

This agreement can occur as part of normal contract negotiations, and can benefit both parties.

Selling abroad

If you are based in the UK but directly sell your product in other EU countries, you must keep records of these sales for four years. You must also show that you have complied with WEEE obligations in the receiving country.

Showing the costs of historic household WEEE to consumers

You can choose to show purchasers the cost of collecting, treating and recovering ‘historic’ WEEE when they purchase new EEE. This only applies to household WEEE and only until 2011, or 2013 for large household appliances.

If you display this cost, you must make sure that:

it does not exceed the actual cost of collecting, treating, recovering and reprocessing an equivalent item of historic WEEE
you provide details of how the costs have been calculated. You can put these details on your website and give purchasers the URL
it is clearly identified to avoid confusion with the purchase price of the new product.

Good practice

You should improve the reusability and recyclability of EEE, especially as part of the product design and by providing information to aid dismantling. This will save you treatment and disposal costs.

WEEE distributor and retailer compliance

Under the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations you are a ‘distributor’ if you sell electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) to end users. This includes retailers, wholesalers, mail order and internet sales.

Make sure that your EEE producers, ie your suppliers, are registered with your environmental regulator. They should always provide you with their producer registration number. All producers must register by 15 March 2007.

Provide information

You must provide your customers with information on:

the environmental impacts of EEE and WEEE
the reasons for separating WEEE from other waste
the meaning of the crossed out wheeled bin symbol
how they can safely deposit WEEE for proper treatment and recycling free of charge.

You must keep records of this information for four years. You must display information to customers on the benefits of take-back schemes. You could use posters or leaflets to provide this information.

Take-back systems

You must set up a system that your customers can use to dispose of WEEE free of charge. You must clearly explain this system to your customers.

There are two types of take-back system, and you must provide at least one of them. They are:

Establish an in-store take-back scheme. In this system you accept a waste item from customers in-store when selling them an equivalent new item.
Join the distributor take-back scheme. This scheme works through a network of designated collection facilities (DCFs). Consumers can dispose of WEEE at these facilities free of charge. You must inform customers how and where they can do this.

In-store take-back

You must:

accept all types of EEE that you sell
record the amount and category of items you receive, and keep these records for four years
arrange the removal of separately collected WEEE. You can do this through either a producer compliance scheme or a waste carrier licensed by your environmental regulator.

If you take back WEEE in-store you may not need to have a waste management licence or exemption. However, you must only use waste carriers that are registered with your environmental regulator for onward transport of WEEE.

Distributor take-back

You must join and pay membership fees to the distributor take-back scheme. This will support a national network of DCFs. The distributor take-back scheme is operated by Valpak Retail WEEE Services Ltd, www.valpack.co.uk.

In England and Wales you can find your nearest recycling and disposal facilities using the Waste Recycling Directory for Business, www.wasterecycling.org.uk, and in Scotland you can find your nearest recycling and reuse services using the Waste Aware Business Recycling Directory, www.wasteawarebusiness.com.

Distance sales

If you are a distance seller, eg you sell via mail order or the internet, you must still provide customers with a free take-back system. You could do this by:

joining the distributor take-back scheme
collecting WEEE from customers and delivering it to a WEEE collection point free of charge.

You must inform customers of how they can dispose of their WEEE.

Non-household users

As a distributor you have no obligation to take back EEE from non-household users. However, you may be asked for information on these sales, such as:

Contact information for the EEE producer. The producer’s compliance scheme is responsible for the end-of-life handling of EEE.

Records that will help producers to supply their producer compliance scheme with accurate information, such as numbers of sales of EEE to non-household users.

Take-back obligations do not apply to retailers selling second-hand or reconditioned EEE. This includes charities or shops selling EEE that has been refurbished by the voluntary and social enterprise sector.

WEEE compliance and your business

All businesses that use electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) must comply with the WEEE Regulations. You must store, collect, treat, recycle and dispose of WEEE separately from your other waste.

You must obtain and keep proof that your WEEE was given to a waste management company, and was treated and disposed of in an environmentally sound way.

When is disposal free?

You are able to return WEEE free of charge if:

it was sold to you after 13 August 2005
you are replacing it with new equivalent EEE.

In these circumstances the producer’s compliance scheme is responsible for the WEEE. Your EEE supplier can give you information on the take-back system available to you.

When do you have to pay for disposal?

You must arrange and pay for the transfer of WEEE to an approved authorised treatment facility (AATF) if:

you are discarding EEE which was purchased before 13 August 2005, and are not replacing it with equivalent EEE
you can not trace the producer or their compliance scheme
you are purchasing new EEE and you choose, through negotiation with the producer, to accept the future costs of treating and disposing of it.

Negotiating your obligations

You can negotiate your WEEE responsibilities with your supplier. You can agree to transfer obligations for WEEE that is being replaced, or for new EEE when it becomes WEEE and is discarded. This agreement can occur as part of normal contract negotiations, and can benefit both parties.

Waste minimisation

You can reduce your disposal costs if you decrease the amount of WEEE you produce.

WEEE that is hazardous/special waste

Some WEEE will be classified as hazardous/special waste.

WEEE must be treated at approved authorised treatment facilities (AATF) and must undergo de-pollution treatment.

De-pollution will not always remove all hazardous components, and the waste may still need to be treated as hazardous/special waste.

Key dates