New incentives have been proposed by Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) producers to address concerns raised by local authorities that some compliance schemes have shied away from direct collections from local authority WEEE sites.
The incentives form part of the Joint Trade Associations proposal to run this year’s WEEE Compliance Fee, and it is designed to ensure the Fee is set at the correct level. This means that producer compliance schemes (PCSs) are incentivised to physically collect WEEE rather than use the Fee. It also aims to ensure that PCSs who have made every effort to collect, should not be penalised for using the Fee.
Under the WEEE Regulations, a WEEE Producer Compliance Scheme (PCS) can opt to pay a Compliance Fee if it does not meet its target through collections of WEEE and the Fee acts as an essential safety valve to prevent market distortions. Defra is currently consulting on the 2017 WEEE Compliance Fee. Two proposals have been received and stakeholders have been invited to comment.
Commenting on the new proposals, Susanne Baker, JTA Chair and Head of Environment and Compliance at techUK said: “Based on evidence and analysis, our proposal focuses on making collecting WEEE from local authorities more attractive to PCSs.”
“Firstly, our proposal fully addresses local authorities’ concerns by basing the Compliance Fee on the costs of collecting WEEE from local authorities and by proposing that Fees should be higher for those schemes that have not collected directly from local authorities.
“Secondly, under the JTA system, the Fee payable increases the further a scheme is from their PCS target. This ensures that even a scheme with a relatively small target is incentivised to collect, a key test in Defra’s criteria. The alternative, basing fees on the national target, means a scheme with a relatively small target can collect nothing and yet see virtually no increase in the Fee it pays.”
The Defra consultation is open until 1 December, and the JTA is encouraging all stakeholders to respond.