The Environment Agency today (Thursday) urged companies that produce, rebrand or import electrical and electronic equipment such as televisions and toasters to sign up with an approved compliance scheme by 15 March 2007.
37 compliance schemes, which will help companies meet the requirements of the WEEE Regulations by collecting and recycling products on their behalf, have now been approved by the Environment Agency and Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA).
Bob Mead, WEEE Project Manager at the Environment Agency said: "From 1 July 2007, under the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations, producers of EEE including manufacturers, rebranders and importers will be responsible for paying for the treatment and recycling of products at the end of their life.
"These producers will have to join a compliance scheme that will help them meet the requirements of the regulations by collecting and recycling products on their behalf. They have until 15 March 2007 to join any of the schemes and with a wide choice of approved schemes, we urge producers to find the one that's best for them.
"We have now published the full list of approved compliance schemes that applied to us during January to help producers of Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EEE) meet the new regulations. This shows the systems we put in place have worked well to meet the deadline of approving the schemes."
Throughout the process the three environment agencies, Environment Agency (England and Wales) SEPA (Scotland) and the Environment and Heritage Service of Northern Ireland, worked closely to deliver a consistent approach across the UK. They also helped the prospective compliance schemes ensure that their applications were complete and met the requirements of the Regulations.
As part of the registration process, producers will need to pay a registration fee to the compliance scheme they would like to join and supply data on how much electrical and electronic equipment they placed on the market in 2006. They may be charged a membership fee, which the individual schemes will decide on.
Following on from this, each compliance scheme will then have until 31 March 2007 to register its members with the relevant environment agency, which will issue each producer with a producer registration number. The producer will need to give this registration number to anyone who distributes or sells their products.
Bob Mead continued: "We are now working to our next priority to approve the facilities in England and Wales that will be involved in recycling the WEEE (the Approved Authorised Treatment Facilities or AATFs).
"The approval process is currently being designed and we are working to have the forms and related documents for prospective facilities ready around mid-March. We will then hope to be receiving applications from 1 April with the aim of determining them by 1 July."
For the full list of approved compliance schemes and their contact details, along with further information on the WEEE regulations, visit www.environment-agency.gov.uk/weee or contact the Environment Agency on 08708 506 506.