The WEEE Directive came fully into effect in UK on 1 July 2007. It requires the recycling of almost all unwanted articles that are powered by mains electricity or by batteries - they may no longer be discarded in landfill.
FAQs
General FAQs relating to the WEEE Directive and the Regulations which implement it in England and Wales
*with acknowledgements to greenstar
Retailers & Distributors
Producers & Importers
Householders
Businesses
Information for Retailers & Distributors
- When selling any electrical or electronic item to a customer after 1 July 2007, you are obliged under the WEEE Directive to inform your customers about the implications of the Directive and to provide a means to retrieve any unwanted item which a new purchase is replacing. There are two routes by which this can be achieved:
- By joining the Distributor Take Back Scheme operated under licence by Valpak. Under this scheme, retailers and distributors do not have to take any action themselves other than pay a fee to join the scheme and then routinely to inform customers of the WEEE disposal facilities this Scheme has put in place at local ‘Civic Amenity Sites’ or ‘Recycling Centres’. Those who join this Scheme will not normally need REVAMP’s services.
- Establish your own arrangements, in concert with a Producer Compliance Scheme of your choice, under which WEEE accumulating on retail premises (then termed additionally a ‘Designated Collection Facility’ or ‘DCF’) is regularly collected by a subcontractor of a Compliance Scheme, and removed to a Approved Authorised Treatment Facility (‘AATF’). In this route you are responsible for the cost of collections and transport to the AATF (but not for any further costs downstream). As the operator of both a Designated Collection Facility and an Approved Authorised Treatment Facility REVAMP is ideally placed to offer this service across the Bristol region (all four unitary authorities) and the counties of Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire and the southern half of Gloucestershire [Link to list of postcodes]. We work for the following Producer Compliance Schemes [list or link]
- ‘Collection on delivery’. Nothing in the detail above prevents retailers and distributors from offering a service to retrieve an item of WEEE when delivering its replacement – as is currently common practice for large domestic appliances. A charge may be imposed for this, but only sufficient to cover the costs of transportation back to the retailer’s premises, pending removal for recycling. (In this instance, the retailer’s premises have to be registered as a ‘Designated Collection Facility’; and the retailer will have to pay for regular clearance of the WEEE and its removal to an AATF. REVAMP has contracts with many of those who arrange this service, and will respond to their instructions to collect WEEE on the request of the retailer).
- Click here to connect with DTI Guidance for Distributors and Retailers issued in April 2007.