WEEE Advice to Final Users

WEEE stands for Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment. The legislation took effect from 1st July 2007 and states that, under certain circumstances, the final user of a piece of electrical or electronic equipment (EEE) can get it collected and recycled at no charge at the end of its life.

There are a number of complications – as you would expect. Certain labels (below) have to be fixed to all new EEE and only when these are present do the requirements of the legislation apply.

There are two basic scenarios – either the EEE has been bought with the label attached – in which case it is the Producer of the EEE that is required to pay for the collection and recycling costs at the end of that EEE item’s life.

Alternatively, in a more complex arrangement, if the EEE item being discarded has no label, then if there is a newly purchased replacement item that does have the label attached, then it is tProducer of the new item that pays for the collection and recycling of the discarded item!

There are a number of secondary issues:

If the intrinsic value of the WEEE is positive, then the final user might wish to consider getting it recycled themselves as this means that they can be paid by the recycler – which cannot happen if they pass the WEEE responsibilities on.

Not all WEEE is covered by this legislation.

The WEEE to be collected must be classified as either non contaminated or having been through a decontamination process (paid for by the final user) – this is to preserve the heath and safety of the recycling personnel. If the WEEE does not comply, then the costs of collection and recycling have to be met by the final user.

If the WEEE contains, or is believed to contain, any hazardous materials, then it can only be removed if it is accompanied by a Hazardous Waste Consignment Note. This is managed by the collecting operation but the cost is charged to the final user and does not form part of the charges met by the Producer.

If the final user has over 200kg of hazardous materials per annum (being the total weight of any items discarded that have hazardous material therein however small a proportion that hazardous material may be of the weight of the whole item), then the premises must be registered with the Environment Agencies and a Hazardous Waste Premises Code be obtained before collections can be made from that address. Again this must be paid for by the final user.

Any final user requesting collection of WEEE should expect to answer a number of questions on the WEEE – relating to location and item description as well as the justification as to which party will pay for it.

Final Users should be aware that almost all Producers have joined “Compliance Schemes” that handle the WEEE collections and recycling on behalf of their Producer members. CESA members have joined a number of different such schemes, but the scheme that CESA supports as a Trade Association as being the most favourable for its members and their customers, is B2B Compliance. This is a not-for-profit operation designed to keep the costs of collection and recycling in hand while providing the
compliance with this legislation as required. Their operation can handle all collections of WEEE – albeit that in some instances the final user will pay and in others the Producer member of B2B Compliance will pay.