Three proposals were submitted for consideration in October last year. In 2014 and 2015 methodologies proposed by the Joint Trade Association were used to calculate the fees, but this year the submission by Valpak has been approved by the secretary of state.
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 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.
The approved proposal submitted by Valpak would see schemes provide direct collection and treatment cost data which will then be used to determine the level of fee to be paid, dependent on material collection streams. Administration of the fee will be overseen by accounting firm Grant Thornton and compliance schemes have until the end of March to issue a declaration of compliance to state that they have met targets through funding WEEE evidence, or payment of a compliance fee.
Vikkie Fitzgerald, Project Manager of our Recycle with Clarity initiative said: “We work very hard to grow our ‘Recycle with Clarity’ WEEE recycling initiative and are working with an ever increasing number of recyclers across the country. This network allows us to meet our WEEE targets each year and ensures we can continue to attract new members to our WEEE compliance scheme.”
Clarity’s 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 at weee@clarityenv.eu or on 0845 129 7177.
