Entering any form of Waste Management in the UK market is a potential minefield of legislation and controlling bodies. There are some basics that I hope to share here that can help point you in the right direction and give you a better view of how the industry is controlled.

26 January 2007

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WEEE _ New Regulations for the control of electrical waste

Two new regulations came into power at the beginning of January.

The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2006 came into force 2/1/07

The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (Waste Management
Licensing)Regulations 2006 Came into force 5/1/07


The first applies mainly to producers, importers and distributers of Electronic Equipment.
The second regs apply mainly to people who handle waste electronic equipment.

The regulations came from the European WEEE Directive, the purpose of the directive is to reduce the volume of hazardous waste going to landfill, Protect human and animal health from the negative impacts of this waste, increase resource productivity while contributing towards sustainable development through the re-use, recovery and recycling of WEEE.

The first regulations are implimented by DTI and the second by The Environment Agency or SEPA.

What does this mean for businesses?

Producers need to become a member of a compliance scheme which will register them, and manage and monitor WEE on their behalf. These are similar to the compliance scheme in operation for the Packaging Waste Regulations. They will need to pay a fee and supply data on EEE placed on the market during 2006. Producers will have obligations to finance the collection, treatment and recycling of WEEE and mark all new products put on the market.

Retailers and distributors will need to decide whether to join a scheme which will collect household WEEE on their behalf, or offer in-store take-back.

To prove they have treated and recycled WEEE, they will provide evidence from Authorised Treatment Facilities. These facilities will require a waste management licence or to register an exemption from waste management licensing with the EA or SEPA.

The licesing regs introduced 2 new licensing exemptions to allow small scale storeag and repair of WEEE.

Follow this link for further information on all aspects of WEEE http://www.weeeman.org/ The EA web site at this link provides information for business http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/business/1745440/444663/1106248/