Environmental guidance for your business in Northern Ireland & Scotland
If your business treats waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) you must meet all of the following requirements:
You can apply for an exemption from waste management licensing if you:
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.
WEEE ATFs are licensed 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:
and be granted approval to become an AATF.
NIEA: WEEE treatment facilities
SEPA: Approved treatment facilities
If you are an AATF you must provide quarterly reports to your environmental regulator showing the amount of WEEE you have:
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.
If you treat WEEE you must use the best available treatment, recovery and recycling techniques (BATRRT).
Scotland: BATRRT guidance from DEFRA
Recycling is reprocessing waste materials in a production process for reuse.
Recovery includes activities such as:
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 the amount of WEEE you recover and recycle. You must include evidence of this in your reports to the NIEA or SEPA.
Equipment category | Minimum amount recovered by the average weight of the equipment | Minimum amount of components, materials and substances reused or recycled by the average weight of the equipment |
Large equipment (external dimension > 50cm) includes: large household, IT and screens, consumer goods, luminaries, tools, leisure and sport, medical devices and monitoring and control, dispensers, includes fridges and freezers, heat pumps, radiators containing oil |
85% | 80% |
Small equipment (no external dimension >50cm) Includes: household appliances, consumer equipment, luminaires, sound or images equipment, tools, toys, leisure/ sport equipment, medical devices, monitoring and control, dispensers, small IT or telecommunications equipment |
85% | 80% |
Small IT and telecommunications equipment (<50 cm) | 75% | 55% |
Screens monitors and equipment containing screens >100cm2 | 80% | 75% |
Gas discharge lamps and LED light sources | n/a | 80% |
Photovoltaic panels | 85% | 80% |
GOV.UK: WEEE: Evidence and national protocols guidance
Businesses affected by the WEEE Regulations
Equipment covered by the WEEE Regulations
Producers of electrical and electronic equipment – What you must do
Distributors of electrical and electronic equipment – What you must do
Users of electrical and electronic equipment – What you must do
Repairing, refurbishing and storing WEEE
Treating and recycling WEEE
Groundwater in Northern Ireland, DAERA have produced a leaflet to raise awareness about this untapped resource
EU Exit, EU Exit useful information
View our latest videos & subscribe to our channel.
Free monthly email newsletter with environmental updates for Northern Ireland and Scotland