The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) has launched a consultation on the compliance fee methodology it will adopt for waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) for the current year.
This year, there has been just one submission, from the Joint Trade Association, which comprises 10 producer trade associations across the electrotechnical sector, including the Association of Manufacturers of Domestic Appliances.
The fee is an alternative mechanism used by compliance schemes and obligated business if they have insufficient recycling evidence to meet their WEEE collection targets for the year.
Defra says its consultation, which runs until 12 November, will be of interest to producers of EEE, approved producer compliance schemes, WEEE treatment facilities, waste management companies, electrical re-use organisations and local authorities.
A JTA-proposed methodology has been used to determine the fee in six consecutive years.
Adjustment
The JTA’s submission outlines that economic analysis undertaken by FTI Consulting concluded the JTA’s ‘business as usual’ Fee methodology should be used for the 2023 compliance year - this is the JTA Fee methodology selected by Defra for the 2021 and 2022 compliance years – with one minor, future focused modification to signal the importance of increasing reported reuse within the WEEE system.
Due to the “limited” WEEE reuse the body believes it is essential to “introduce an economic” incentive in the form of “reuse adjustment premiums" to be integrated into the 2023 fee formula, aimed at motivating Producer Compliance Scheme to enhance their efforts in promoting reuse.
The consultation states that the premium will apply an “uplift to the Fee for PCSs that do not obtain sufficient WEEE reuse evidence.” It adds “the adjustment we propose is not symmetrical. That is, PCSs which reuse less than the average share of their WEEE pay a higher fee but, for those that reuse more than the average share do not receive a downward adjustment.”
View our previous story 'Defra names 2023 compliance fee administrator [10/02/2023]'.
