Treating and recycling WEEE
What you must do
If your business treats waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) you must meet all the following requirements:
- have a waste management licence, a pollution prevention and control (PPC) permit or an exemption in Northern Ireland, or an EASR authorisation in Scotland
- be an authorised treatment facility (ATF) or approved authorised treatment facility (AATF)
- treat WEEE according to the guidance on best available treatment, recovery and recycling techniques.
Authorisations in Northern Ireland
In Northern Ireland, you can apply for an exemption from waste management licensing if you:
- repair or refurbish WEEE
- store WEEE while it is waiting to be treated or recovered elsewhere
- crush waste gas discharge lamps, e.g. fluorescent tubes.
See the page in this guideline: Repairing, refurbishing and storing WEEE.
If you cannot meet the conditions of an exemption, you must have a waste management licence or a PPC permit.
Authorisations in Scotland
In Scotland, If you:
- temporarily store waste at a collection point, for example a take-back scheme for electrical items, or
- crush waste gas discharge lamps
you will be considered authorised if you follow the rules of the General Binding Rule (GBR) for the temporary storage of waste at a collection point.
If you repair or refurbish WEEE, you will need an EASR registration.
You will need and EASR registration If you store and treat 35 tonnes, or less of WEEE at any one time by repairing, refurbishing, or dismantling it for the purpose of:
- reusing the WEEE for its original purpose
- reusing any dismantled components for their original purpose, or
- manually dismantling WEEE for the purpose of recovery elsewhere
Authorised treatment facilities (ATFs)
WEEE ATFs are authorised to treat WEEE, but they cannot issue evidence notes. Evidence notes can only be issued by an AATF on their behalf.
If you want to issue evidence of receipt of WEEE to a producer compliance scheme you must apply to your environmental regulator:
- the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) in Northern Ireland
- SEPA in Scotland
and be granted approval to become an AATF.
If you are an AATF you must provide quarterly reports to your environmental regulator showing the amount of WEEE you have:
- received for treatment
- sent to a different facility for treatment – including details of the ATF or AATF it was sent to
- issued evidence for reuse as a whole appliance
- delivered to an approved exporter for treatment and recovery or recycling outside the UK
You must comply with the conditions of your approval and make sure that WEEE materials are recovered or recycled to the appropriate targets for each category of WEEE.
In Northern Ireland you must also provide your environmental regulator with a report from an independent auditor confirming that the evidence notes you issued match up with the amount of WEEE you received for each approval period.
In Scotland, SEPA has taken an enforcement position not to require businesses to provide this report. SEPA officers will instead make checks during site visits.
Treatment, recovery and recycling techniques
If you treat WEEE you must use the best available treatment, recovery and recycling techniques (BATRRT).
Recovery and recycling targets for WEEE
Recycling is reprocessing waste materials in a production process for reuse.
Recovery includes activities such as:
-
incineration with energy recovery
-
recovery of metal and metal components
-
recovery of inorganic materials, e.g. glass and plastic.
Collecting, sorting, treating and processing WEEE is not recycling. Evidence from AATFs covering these types of activities does not show that you have met the recovery and recycling requirements.
If you recover and recycle WEEE you must meet targets for WEEE you recover and recycle. You must include evidence of this in your reports to the NIEA or SEPA.
WEEE recovery and recycling targets
|
Description |
Recovery |
Recycling |
|
Large household appliances |
85% |
80% |
|
Small household appliances |
75% |
55% |
|
IT and telecommunications equipment |
80% |
70% |
|
Consumer equipment |
80% |
70% |
|
Lighting equipment |
75% |
55% |
|
Electrical and electronic tools (with the exception of large-scale stationary industrial tools) |
75% |
55% |
|
Toys, leisure and sports equipment |
75% |
55% |
|
Medical devices (with the exception of all implanted and infected products) |
75% |
55% |
|
Monitoring and control instruments |
75% |
55% |
|
Automatic dispensers |
85% |
80% |
|
Display screens |
80% |
70% |
|
Cooling appliances |
85% |
80% |
|
Gas discharge lamps and LED light sources |
no target |
80% |
|
Photovoltaic panels |
80% |
70% |
|
Vapes and electronic cigarettes |
75% |
55% |