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legislation
Obligations of the WEEE legislation
are divided between Producers
(companies responsible for placing
goods on the UK market whether
they did so by manufacturing them
in the UK or by importing them
from elsewhere) and Distributors,
which is the term used – somewhat
confusingly – to describe retailers.
If you re-brand items imported into the
UK by the OEM, you become the Producer
under WEEE regulations.
The WEEE regulations make a
distinction between B2B and B2C products,
although notably in the recast, a product
which has the same specification whether
it is sold to a business or a consumer is
classed as B2C waste, regardless of the
customer.
B2B WEEE
For B2B WEEE, the situation hasn’t really
changed. There are two classes of WEEE:
‘historical WEEE’, which was put on the
market before August 2005; and ‘new
WEEE’.
For historical WEEE, the Producer (i.e.
the OEM or the importer) is obliged to
take back and reprocess one old device
for every new one supplied. Therefore,
in theory, if a company buys 50 new
multifunctional devices to replace 200
printers, the Producer responsible for
putting the new devices on the UK market
is only responsible for disposing of 50 of
the old ones; the customer is responsible
for the remainder.
For new WEEE, the Producer is
responsible for disposal of all end-of-
life items, regardless of whether they
are supplying replacements or not.
Theoretically, disposal is managed through
Producer Compliance Schemes at the
WEEE Producer’s cost. In reality, the
amount of e-waste going through producer
compliance schemes is relatively low,
because business customers recognise
that they can generate revenue by using
an asset disposal service, which is typically
Recast WEEE legislation:
what it means for resellers
but in reality the only way a product is
likely to be re-used is if it is returned to
the OEM or to a specialist third party that
prioritises re-use either of whole products
or components. Under the WEEE legislation
there is no obligation on resellers to offer
such a facility but competitive advantage
may be gained from doing so.
Value over volume
The other flaw in the WEEE legislation
is that it offers no incentive to design
products in a way that facilitates
disassembly and materials recovery.
This aspect, combined with the fact that
targets are fixed on volume of e-waste
collected rather than the value of materials
recovered, means that the optimum
disposal process is to shred everything and
then use magnets to pick out the metals.
This causes co-mingling of polymers and
leaves contaminants in the residue that
make it difficult and expensive to recover
anything that can be used to make high-
grade post-consumer recycled polymers
for use as a feedstock for manufacturing
similar products.
If we are to move towards a more
regenerative system along circular
economy principles, we need a system that
prioritises value of recovered material over
volume of collected products.
kyoceradocumentsolutions.co.uk
...in practice,
once a
customer
discards an
item through
any of the
government
compliance
schemes,
it becomes
classified as
waste.
more suited to their needs.
For B2C WEEE, the Distributor’s
(i.e. the reseller’s) obligations become
slightly more burdensome under the new
regulations because a retail outlet with
floorspace of 400m
2
or above, selling
consumer electrical or electronic products,
must now take back small WEEE (items
measuring no more than 25cm in any
dimension) regardless of whether there is
a corresponding purchase or even whether
that type of product is stocked.
WEEE you collect must be reprocessed
by an Authorised Treatment Facility. You
can be exempted from this obligation by
joining the Distributor Take-back Scheme,
for which a fee is charged, based on the
value of electrical equipment placed on
the market. Under either option, you must
display notices in-store (or on your website
if you are an online reseller) advising
customers about environmental issues
relating to waste EEE.
Display equipment, such as monitors,
now have their own category for reporting
purposes, but the obligations for treatment
are unchanged. It is worth noting that
e-waste is not normally classified as
hazardous except for some specific
categories, such as laptops; CRT and LCD-
based monitors; items containing mercury
and lead; and mercury and NiCd batteries.
However, the environment agency has
ruled that small mixed WEEE should be
classified as hazardous.
Re-use v recycling
Viewed purely from an environmental
sustainability perspective, the recast WEEE
regulations don’t address some of the
shortcomings of the previous legislation.
Although nominally intended to promote
re-use as well as recycling, in practice once
a customer discards an item through any
of the government compliance schemes, it
becomes classified as waste.
Many discarded items are still in
perfect working order and re-use would
be the environmentally preferable option,
Tracey Rawling Church, director of CSR at Kyocera
Document Solutions UK, discusses the impact on the
channel of recast WEEE legislation, which came into effect
on January 1 this year.
Tracey Rawling Church:
“We need a system
that prioritises value of
recovered material over
volume of collected
products.”
