Producers

How do the WEEE regulations affect you?

WEEE Regulations

The WEEE Directive was introduced to protect natural resources and manage e-waste for the benefit of consumers and the environment, the WEEE Regulations specify obligations that producers who place electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) on the UK market must meet.

The WEEE Directive is a ‘producer responsibility’ directive which means that producers of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) are required to take financial responsibility for the environmental impact of the products that they place on the market, specifically when those products become waste.

In the UK, the WEEE Directive has been transposed into national law by The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2013, as amended.

What is WEEE?

WEEE is waste electrical and electronic equipment. It is end-of-life electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) and covers virtually everything with a plug or battery. It is classed as either household (B2C) or non-household (B2B).

What’s in scope?

In January 2019, the WEEE Regulations moved to ‘open scope’, meaning that all equipment that falls under the definition of EEE is in scope unless specifically listed as exempt or excluded. In the UK, EEE must be reported in one of the 14 EEE categories, which can be found here.

More information on the definition of EEE, the exemptions/exclusions from open scope, and the 14 EEE categories, can be found in the full guidance from the Environment Agency on gov.uk.

Are you an EEE Producer?

You are a producer if you:

• Manufacture and sell EEE under your own brand
• Or, are established outside the UK and sell EEE directly to the UK market by distance selling

Here “sell” means placing on the UK market for the first time.

This definition therefore covers EEE supplied whether at a cost or free of charge and those producers selling direct to end users through the internet as well as those selling their own branded EEE through third parties such as distributors.

Your obligations as an EEE Producer

• If you place, or expect to place, in a year more than five tonnes of EEE on the UK market, you must register with an approved WEEE Producer Compliance Scheme (PCS) such as REPIC by 15th November prior to each compliance year. You will need to provide registration information about your company and the EEE products it sells, which has to be signed by a director or company secretary (or relevant authorised person of a partnership or individual). REPIC’s straight forward registration process will guide you through this.
• New producers entering the UK market must register with a PCS, or as a small producer (see below) within 28 days of first placing EEE on the market or forming the intention to do so.
• Declare your EEE producer registration number to any distributor who sells or otherwise supplies your B2C EEE. The registration number is in the generic format of WEE/AB1234CD and is provided to the PCS that a producer first registers with.
• Mark EEE products with the crossed out wheeled bin symbol, a date mark and Producer Identification Mark (PIMs).
• Where you are registered with a PCS:
  • Notify your PCS of any changes to your registration information within 28 days of the change.
  • Provide details of your PIMs.
  • Calculate and provide information on a quarterly basis on the amount, in tonnes, of B2C EEE that you have placed on the market in each of the fourteen categories. This information is required annually in relation to B2B EEE although we strongly recommend you also provide this information quarterly.
  • You must finance the cost your PCS incurs in collecting and treating WEEE, or otherwise finances, on your behalf. For household EEE producers this is your share of the annual WEEE collections target set by government in each of the categories of EEE your company places on the UK market; your share is calculated using the EEE tonnes your company placed on the UK market in the preceding compliance year compared to all other registered producers in the same category of EEE. For non-household EEE producers, unless your company passed on its financing responsibility with the original sale of a product you must finance the treatment of your own products when they reach end of life and the end user contacts you to request disposal.
  • Your PCS will register you with the appropriate environment agency, as well as provide them with relevant information about the EEE you have placed on the market and details of the WEEE they have collected and delivered for treatment and recycling to an approved treatment facility on your behalf.
• Retain records pertaining to your producer obligations for a period of four years from the date that they are produced.
• Provide information on reuse and environmentally sound treatment of each new type of EEE put on the market within one year of it being placed on the market, including:
  • The location of dangerous substances and preparations
  • The different components and materials included in the EEE
  • This information can either be provided in the form of manuals or by way of electronic media
• Comply with the requirements of Article 8 of the WEEE Directive where you put EEE on the market by means of distance communication in any member state except the UK on or after 1st July 2007. Article 8 applies only to B2C sales.
• If you place 5 tonnes or less of EEE on the UK market in a year you are regarded as a small producer and are not required to join a PCS but must register directly with the relevant environment agency by 31^st January of each year

If you sell EEE directly to a UK householder, you will also be classed a distributor and must comply with these obligations separately. For more on distributor responsibilities, click here.

How do the Batteries regulations affect you?

Batteries Regulations

The Batteries and Accumulators and Waste Batteries and Accumulators Directive (Batteries Directive) were introduced to protect natural resources and manage waste batteries for the benefit of consumers and the environment.

The Batteries Directive is a ‘producer responsibility’ directive which means that producers of batteries are required to take financial responsibility for the environmental impact of the products that they place on the market, specifically when those products become waste.

In the UK, the Batteries Directive has been transposed into national law by The Batteries and Accumulators (Placing on the Market) Regulations 2008 (as amended) and The Waste Batteries and Accumulators Regulations 2009, as amended.

What are Batteries and Accumulators?

A battery or accumulator is any source of electrical energy generated by direct conversion of chemical energy and consisting of either:

• one or more primary battery cells (non-rechargeable or disposable batteries)
• or one or more secondary battery cells (accumulators or rechargeable batteries)

What’s in scope?

Batteries are classified as industrial, automotive or portable batteries.

A portable battery or battery pack is:

• sealed
• under 4 kilograms
• not an automotive or industrial battery
• not designed exclusively for industrial or professional use

Batteries familiar in shape and size to the ones you use at home are most likely portable. However, some regular-looking batteries may have unusual voltages because they have a specific industrial use.

An industrial battery or battery pack is a battery of any size or weight, with one of the following characteristics. It is:

• designed exclusively for industrial or professional uses
• used as a source of power for propulsion in an electric vehicle or a ‘hybrid’ vehicle
• unsealed but not an automotive battery
• sealed and not a portable battery

A battery is not industrial just because a professional person, like a service engineer, installs or removes it from a piece of equipment.

An automotive battery is a battery of any size or weight used for starting or to power ignition for a road vehicle engine, or to power lighting in a road vehicle.

More information on identifying the different types of batteries can be found here.

Are you a Battery Producer?

You are a producer if, irrespective of the selling technique used, you place batteries, including those already in appliances or vehicles, on the UK market for the first time, on a professional basis.

This means a transfer by sale, loan, hire, lease or gift that moves the ownership from a:

• UK manufacturer to a UK distributor
• UK manufacturer to the final UK consumer or user
• manufacturer outside the UK to an importer in the UK or the person responsible for distributing the item in the UK
• manufacturer, or formal representative, direct to the final user or consumer

Find more information on what placing on the market means here.

Your obligations as a Battery Producer

• If your business places more than one tonne of portable batteries onto the UK market in a year, you must join a Battery Compliance Scheme (BCS) by 15th October prior to each compliance year. You will need to provide registration information about your company and the battery products it sells, which has to be signed by a director or company secretary (or relevant authorised person of a partnership or individual). REPIC’s straight forward registration process will guide you through this.
• Declare your battery producer registration number to any distributor or business end user that you supply your batteries to. This number is provided to you when you first register as a producer.
• Meet the requirements set out in the Batteries Regulations (Placing on the Market) 2008, as amended. These include battery labelling requirements and chemistry restrictions. More information on this can be found here.
• Where you are registered with a BCS:
  • Notify your BCS of any changes to your registration information within 28 days of the change.
  • Provide details of your Producer Identification Mark (PIMs).
  • Calculate and provide information on a quarterly basis of the amount, in tonnes, of portable batteries that you have placed on the market in each of three chemistry types. This information will determine your waste portable battery financing obligation.
  • You must finance the cost your BCS incurs in collecting and treating waste portable batteries, or otherwise finances, on your behalf. This obligation is calculated as 45% of the average tonnage of portable batteries you place on the market in the compliance year in question plus the preceding two years.
  • Your BCS will register your business with the appropriate environment agency, as well as provide them with relevant information about the batteries your business has placed on the market and details of the waste batteries they collect and deliver for treatment and recycling to an approved treatment facility on your behalf.

• Producers of industrial and automotive batteries also have waste battery financing obligations but only as a backstop in the event the collection and treatment of waste batteries are not financed through the normal operation of markets. This means you are not required to join a BCS and instead must register directly with the Office for Product and Safety Standards by 31st March of each year. If your business however is a portable battery producer as well, you only need one registration and can register as an industrial and/or automotive battery producer through your portable battery compliance scheme.

• Retain records pertaining to your producer obligations for a period of four years from the date that they are produced.

• If your business places less than one tonne of portable batteries onto the UK market in a year, you must register with the Environment Agency by the 31st January each year and pay the annual registration fee. You need to report details of the tonnage of portable batteries you placed on the UK market but you do not need to register with a BCS nor make any financial contribution to collection, treatment or recycling of waste batteries.

If you provide batteries professionally to an end-user you will also be classed a distributor and must comply with these obligations separately. For more on distributor responsibilities, click here.

How do the Packaging Regulations affect you?

The Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive (Packaging Directive) was introduced to protect natural resources and manage packaging and packaging waste for the benefit of consumers and the environment.

In the UK, the Packaging Directive has been transposed into national law by The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 2007 (as amended), (The Packaging Waste Regulations) and The Packaging (Essential Requirements) Regulations 2015.

REPIC provides a producer compliance scheme to help companies obligated under the Packaging Waste Regulations.

What is Packaging?

Packaging is anything that is used to contain, protect, deliver or present goods. Goods could be raw materials or processed items.

Packaging can take many forms and includes boxes, pallets, labels, containers, tubes, bags, sacks, tape, wrapping and binding and tying material. For the definition of packaging, click here.

What’s in scope?

Your business will be classed as handling packaging if you carry out one or more of the packaging supply chain activities below. You will also be obligated if any of these activities are carried out on your behalf, if you own the packaging or the packed goods at the time at which the activity took place and you either imported the packaging, or you subsequently supply it to another party.

• Manufacturer – Manufactures the raw materials used to make packaging
• Convertor – Converts raw materials into packaging
• Packer/Filler – Fills packaging
• Seller – Sells packaged goods to the final user
• Importer – Imports packaging, packaging materials or packaged goods into the UK

Are you a Packaging Producer?

You may be a producer if your company manufactures packaging, leases packaging, uses packaging in the supply of its product(s) or imports packaging or a packaged product.

Your obligations as a Packaging Producer

• You must calculate the tonnage of packaging your company has handled as a producer in the previous year.
• If your business, or group of companies handles more than 50 tonnes of packaging a year AND has an annual turnover of more than £2 million you are a producer and must:
  • Register by 15th April in each compliance year, either directly with the appropriate environment agency or through a packaging compliance scheme (PCS) such as REPIC. As part of this process you must submit data relating to the packaging that you handled the previous year, unless due to your turnover, you are classed as a small producer and have elected to use the allocation method.meet your recovery and recycling obligation by obtaining sufficient Packaging Recovery Notes (PRNs) from accredited re-processors and exporters. Your recovery and recycling obligation is calculated using your packaging data.
  • Submit a Certificate of Compliance to confirm that you have met your obligations.

If you join a producer compliance scheme, you are only required to register and submit data, the compliance scheme is responsible for meeting your recycling and recovery obligations and for submitting a certificate of compliance.  REPIC’s straight forward registration process guides our members through this, providing our scheme members with comprehensive guidance on how to prepare their packaging data. We also check each member’s data every year prior to its final submission to verify that their packaging flows are correctly recorded and any significant changes to previous year’s data are logical.

• Producers whose main activity is as a seller packaging also have Consumer Information Obligations (CIO). More information on all packaging producer responsibilities can be found here.
• Some packaging producers will also have responsibilities under The Packaging (Essential Requirements) Regulations 20015,. These include minimising the use of packaging. More information on this can be found here.

As a member of REPIC

On behalf of our producer members, REPIC finances the collection, treatment, recovery and environmentally-sound disposal of WEEE, batteries and packaging in the UK.

As a REPIC member, you will have access to:

• Our clear and concise guidance on how the Regulations affect your business
• Our bespoke online registration and data entry system
• A complete tracking service for WEEE and batteries collected and treated to ensure totally auditable compliance
• Regular information on WEEE, batteries and packaging cost updates and forecasts
• Standard and bespoke WEEE, batteries and packaging collection solutions
• Independent audit and verification of the cost allocation mechanism and your market share calculations
• Annual confirmation of compliance with your obligations under the WEEE, Batteries and / or Packaging Regulations.

For more on the exclusive benefits we offer to members of our WEEE, batteries and packaging compliance schemes, visit our services page.

Guidance

Producer responsibility regulations in the UK ensure that businesses are responsible for the end-of-life environmental impact of their products. These laws are regulated by separate environment agencies in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland.

The gov.uk website offers full guidance on producer responsibility regulations and can be accessed here.

Do I need to register in other countries?

Producer responsibility requirements for WEEE, batteries and packaging vary from country to country. You may be required to sign up directly to another country’s National Register, or to join a producer compliance scheme (PCS). 

As there remains no harmonised legal framework and obligations differ across member states, we recommend seeking advice on registration requirements across the EU.

Along with other producer-led not-for-profit PCSs in Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. REPIC is a founding member of WEEE Europe, a pan-European, non-profit organisation based in Munich, Germany. WEEE Europe works closely with producers to provide advice on obligations for WEEE and batteries in 27 EU countries plus the UK, Switzerland and Norway.

WEEE Europe coordinates fast and reliable registration with national registers or producer compliance schemes in the countries relevant to a producer and offers an IT platform for producers to centrally fulfil their obligation to report ‘placed on the market’ figures in different member states. The organisation’s participating producer compliance schemes guarantee to abide by international waste treatment standards.

If you have obligations in countries other than the UK, visit the WEEE Europe website.