Contacts, links and documents
Contacts
For further information on the UK WEEE Regulations and WEEE Directive, please contact weee@bis.gsi.gov.uk
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) is responsible for ensuring the permitting of Authorised Treatment Facilities under the WEEE Directive.
The producer obligations of the UK WEEE Regulations are enforced in England and Wales by the Environment Agency for England and Wales (the EA), in Scotland by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and in Northern Ireland by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA).
The VCA, an executive agency of the Department for Transport, is the enforcement body for electrical and electrical equipment (EEE) distributor obligations.
Links
Members of the Distributor Takeback Scheme (DTS) will support a network of collection facilities where consumers can return their old EEE for recycling.
A list of retailers who are members of the DTS, details of sites that are approved Designated Collection Facilities (DCFs) that will accept WEEE from householders and further information on becoming a member of the DTS is included in the links below:
Useful documents
In order to help businesses determine which products fall within the scope of the WEEE Directive, non-statutory guidance document was first published on 28 February 2007 to accompany the WEEE Regulations. This Guidance was revised in August 2007. A copy of the document can be downloaded from the right hand column.
The Commission has also produced a non-legally binding Frequently Asked Questions Document:
Commissions Frequently Asked Questions (PDF)
Please note that the UK Government is not in a position to provide a definitive and exhaustive answer on the types of equipment fall within the scope of the Directive. Only the European Court of Justice has the ultimate right to do this. Any advice that is given will be based upon the Commission’s FAQs, and cannot be viewed as either legally binding or a definitive answer.
The Environment Agency for England and Wales has also issued a Frequently Asked Questions Document:
Environment Agency FAQ (PDF)
Further non-legally binding guidance can be obtained from the Envirowise Guides on the WEEE and RoHS Directives.
Guidance on the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations can now be found in the NetRegs WEEE environmental page.
DEFRA published the WEEE (Waste Management Licensing)(England and Wales) Regulations 2006. These Regulations set out how WEEE has to be treated in accordance with the requirements of Article 6 of the WEEE Directive. The regulations also provide an exemption from waste management licensing for the repair and re-furbishment of WEEE for re-use and a further exemption from waste management licensing for storage of WEEE; these exemptions must be registered with the Environment Agency.
The WEEE (Waste Management Licensing)(England and Wales)(Amendment) Regulations 2006 amended the original Regulations by inserting the appropriate charge for registering the repair and re-furbishment exemption to that which had been the subject of public consultation.
Guidance on the Best Available Treatment, Recovery and Recycling Techniques and Treatment (PDF) (BATRRTT) of WEEE has been issued for those treating WEEE.
