On the 28th December 2023, Defra published and opened a consultation and a call for evidence on the reform of The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2013.
The government are looking to reform these Regulations to increase levels of separately collected WEEE for re-use and recycling, and to ensure that producers and distributors of electrical and electronic products finance the full net cost of collection and proper treatment of products that end up as waste. It is also intended to reform the Regulations to incorporate Circular Economy principles by incentivising design of EEE products to have a lower environmental impact and to last longer in use.
There are two elements to this consultation process:
- A consultation document containing formal proposals with 74 questions. Defra seek views on policy proposals in the following areas:
- Increasing collections of wate electrical and electronic equipment from households
- Increasing distributor collections infrastructure
- New producer obligations for online marketplaces and fulfilment houses
- Dealing with the environmental impacts of vaping products
- System governance, the creation of a WEEE scheme administrator and performance indicators
- A call for evidence document containing less formal proposals on areas for potential reform with 71 questions. Defra seek views and evidence on the following areas of potential reform:
- Full net cost recovery
- Allocation of costs for the collection and treatment of household WEEE
- Prevention of waste and increasing re-use of unwanted electrical and electronic equipment
- Moving to a circular economy through the design of better products and business models
- Increasing collections of business WEEE
- Improving treatment standards
Both close on 7th March 2024 but the BTHA will be submitting its response on 1st March 2024.
A summary of the government proposals can be viewed here.
BTHA will be responding to both on behalf of members and will be engaging with our stakeholders to understand their views. If you produce or sell electrical toys, please get in touch with Kerri@btha.co.uk to discuss the proposals and feedback your views. This is the main opportunity to shape future government regulation on waste electrical items so please do get in touch if you fall in scope.
