Costs

It has been estimated the likely cost of the WEEE Directive to UK industry could be as much as £455 million per annum.

Recovery and recycling will be the major costs, but there are also costs related to registration, information provision, management activities and possible design changes.

Who will pay?

The Directive states that the producers are the financially responsible parties for recovery and recycling of separately collected WEEE.

For domestic retail sales the take-back must be at no cost to the consumer. However, it is realistic to assume that these costs will be shared between producers, suppliers and customers, whether 'visibly' or 'invisibly'. There will be no direct charge to the customer for take-back of products, but it is likely that purchase prices will rise by a small amount to absorb any cost burden on the producer.

The Directive requires that a producer that supplies new equipment to a business user to replace original equipment purchased before the commencement of the regulations must finance the costs of treatment, recovery and sound disposal of the replaced equipment (whether or not it supplied the original equipment). If the business user is not making a like-for-like replacement purchase then he/she is responsible for financing the collection, treatment, recovery and environmentally responsible end disposal of any equipment discarded, if it bought the equipment prior to commencement to the regulations. This recovery and recycling will need to be undertaken in line with an altered waste Duty of Care. The Environment Agency website gives more information on this http://www.environmentagency.gov.uk/business/444217/444663/1106248/?version=1&lang=_e

For waste resulting from new products sold after commencement of the regulations the obligation for recovery and recycling is on the producer, but the producer and the business user can freely negotiate to reach an agreement on how to allocate the responsibility of the "future" WEEE.

Visible fees

The use of visible fees is voluntary in the UK , the situation varies between EU Member States.

The Directive allows the use of visible fees for a specified transitional period to cover the costs of recycling historic household WEEE. This is allowed for a period of eight years from the commencement of the regulations in respect of sales of all new products within the Directive's scope except for new equipment in the Directive's Annex 1A, category 1 (large household goods), where it is allowed for a period ten years. In some Member States the use of visible fees is mandatory and in some is set by Government. In others it is voluntary and a decision for producers and retailers.

It is prohibited for a product to show separately the costs of collecting, treating and recovering waste arising from new household electrical and electronic equipment put on the market after commencement of the regulations.

The arrangements between producers, retailers and/or distributors are a commercial matter for the parties concerned.