The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has announced that a WEEE compliance fee proposal that was submitted by the Joint Trade Association will once again be adopted for the 2015 period.
The revised WEEE regulations, which came into force in January 2014, set out a system of household waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) collection targets for producer compliance schemes.
As part of these revised regulations, WEEE compliance schemes can now pay a compliance fee to meet the cost of its members’ obligations should it fail to meet collection targets. The fee is intended to act as an incentive to compliance schemes to reach their collection targets without having to buy evidence from other schemes which may have collected more than they need. It is determined after the end of each compliance year, and schemes do not learn how much they are required to pay until each scheme has submitted their final evidence.
Last July, BIS invited stakeholders to submit proposals for how the compliance fee should work for the 2015 compliance period and later held a consultation asking for feedback on the three bids received. The proposal from JTA was adopted for the second year running and the 2015 fee will follow a similar system to the one used for 2014. Based on an ‘escalator’ principle, it had a sliding scale that set a higher fee for schemes the further they were from their target. It was calculated by taking into account the average cost of transport and treatment for each waste stream.
Clarity Environmental did not need to rely on the compliance fee for the 2014 period. Vikkie Fitzgerald, Project Manager of our Recycle with Clarity initiative said:
“As a result of the continued growth of our ‘Recycle with Clarity’ WEEE recycling network, we did not have to rely on the compliance fee to ensure we complied for the 2014 period. Not only did we meet our targets, but we also attracted more producers into our scheme for 2015. Whilst we were pleased to hear a decision on this year’s compliance fee had been made, the success of our scheme has continued and we do not anticipate that we will need to use the fee again this year.”
Details of costs of the scheme and fee rates have not been disclosed. Those producer compliance schemes that need to use the compliance fee to meet their collection targets have until the 31 March to pay.
Our WEEE compliance scheme provides its members with low cost and simple compliance, alongside unrivalled member support. If you would like to discuss compliance with the WEEE regulations, get in touch with a member of our team.
