Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE)

You are a producers of EEE if you:

• Manufacture and sell EEE under your own brand in the UK
• Resell equipment made by someone else under your own brand (if the maker’s brand appears on the equipment, they are the producer)
• Import EEE on a commercial basis into the UK
• Or are established outside of the UK and supply EEE directly to the UK market by distance selling (i.e. online, mail order, phone)

WEEE regulations apply to all producers regardless of their size, turnover, market share or number of employees. You are not a producer if you buy an item of EEE abroad and bring it into the UK for your own use.

Producer registration requirements:

Producers of EEE must register annually based on the amount of EEE they have put on the UK market in the previous year. If this amount is under 5 tonnes you can register directly with the environmental regulator in your jurisdiction, which in Scotland would be SEPA.

If this amount is over 5 tonnes you must register with an approved producer compliance scheme. They will then take on your legal obligations to finance the collection, treatment, recovery and environmentally sound disposal of household WEEE collected in the UK. The scheme will purchase evidence of recycling on your behalf from an approved authorised treatment facility or approved exporter.

List of WEEE public registers:

The WEEE public registers is maintained by the Environmental Agency on the behalf of all four UK regulators, including SEPA. It provides public registers for EEE producers, approved exporters, approved authorised treatment facilities, and WEEE approved producer compliance schemes.

SEPA also maintain their own register of:

• Approved exporters
• Approved Authorised Treatment Facilities (AATF)

Producer Obligations:

Producers of EEE are also required to:

• Mark products with the crossed out wheeled bin symbol and a date mark
• Provide information on reuse and environmentally sound treatment of the products and components (includes materials, dangerous substances and preparations) within one year of putting them on the market
• Make sure that distributors you supply have your producer registration number
• Keep records for at least 4 years of the amount of EEE put on the market by category

The UK WEEE Regulations place take-back obligations on retailers and other distributors who sell EEE

Retailers or distributors can choose one of three options with regards to meeting their take-back obligations:

Option 1 - Join the Distributor Take-back Scheme (DTS):

Retailers can join the Distributor Take-back Scheme (DTS) on payment of a retention fee, which goes towards funding a network of collection facilities where consumers can dispose of their household WEEE free of charge.

The DTS is operated by Valpak Retail WEEE Services. Their activities include collection and distribution of members’ funding, compilation and maintenance of the designated collection facility (DCF) register and the development and provision of consumer information to retail members to ensure that they meet all their obligations under the regulations.

Option 2 - Offer in-store take-back:

Distributors must accept an item of household WEEE equivalent to the new item of household EEE sold to the consumer free of charge, irrespective of when and where the original item brought for disposal was originally purchased.

Where in-store take-back is offered, it must be for all types of EEE that the distributor sells.

Returned WEEE should be accepted within a reasonable period following a sale – best practice would be 28 days.

Free take-back is extended to distance sales and distance sellers should provide the customer with an alternative route for free take-back, such as the inclusion of a pre-addressed envelope for items for return.

Option 3 - Provide an alternative free take-back service, which is available and accessible to customer:

WEEE deposited at such facilities must be managed in accordance with the regulations and other waste management legislation and local planning requirements.

Distributors should either establish their facilities as private DCFs or make arrangements with producer compliance schemes (PCSs) to return the WEEE directly into the system by delivery to an appointed approved authorised treatment facility (AATF). This requires agreement between a distributor and PCS.

The UK WEEE regulations do not place collection and disposal obligations on local authorities, although it is widely accepted that most household WEEE is likely to be collected via the UK's network of civic amenity sites.

Local authorities can voluntarily register civic amenity sites as designated collection facilities (DCFs). If they opt in:

• They must comply with the DCF code of practice which requires minimum levels of separate storage of WEEE at the sites
• They will receive funding from the distributor take-back scheme (DTS)
• Their WEEE will be removed by producer compliance schemes for onward treatment, recycling and disposal without charge
• They can count WEEE recycling toward recycling targets

Businesses, and other non-household users, have specific responsibilities for the disposal of EEE. We have produced a comprehensive guidance (pdf 948kB) providing further details of these responsibilities.

As a household end user, you have an important role in the recycling of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE). Whilst there are no legal obligations on household end users, you are encouraged to discard your WEEE separately from other waste. The WEEE regulations require retailers and distributors of EEE to establish a UK-wide WEEE collection infrastructure, making it easy for you discard your WEEE.

Retailers and distributors are required to provide in-store take-back of old equipment when you purchase a replacement item, or alternatively direct you to a convenient WEEE collection point

Please note that you are not entitled to a free collection of your WEEE from your home.

If you operate a WEEE authorised treatment facility (ATF) you can apply to become an approved authorised treatment facility (AATF) in order that you obtain the ability to issue WEEE evidence notes on obligated WEEE.

As an AATF you must receive WEEE from a designated WEEE collection facility, or a system set up by a WEEE compliance scheme, and treat the WEEE in line with best available treatment recovery and recycling techniques (BATTRT). If you export UK sourced WEEE to countries outside the European Economic Area for recovery, you must supply evidence that the environmental standards at each plant overseas site are broadly equivalent to those in the UK.

 Any company exporting waste must also comply with the Waste Shipment Regulations.

Guidance notes and application forms - Please contact us before completing and submitting an application form.

• Guidance notes for approval as an approved authorised treatment facility (AATF) or approved exporter for WEEE
• Application form for approval to become an Approved Authorised Treatment Facility (AATF)
• Application form for approval to become an Approved Export (AE)

Please contact the Producer Compliance and Waste Shipment Unit, for further guidance including the process for issuing of evidence and on WEEE protocols.