The government today (24/03/2005) confirmed that new regulations on waste electronics will be completed later this year, with producer responsibility starting in January 2006.
The DTI has confirmed a revision of the Clearing House proposal for organising responsibility for waste electronics, and has accepted that compliance schemes will have an important role within the WEEE system.
In a letter to key stakeholders, Chris Tollady of the DTI said the European WEEE Directive would be transposed into UK law in summer 2005, with non-statutory guidance accompanying it.
From January 2006, the Directive’s producer responsibility obligations for household and non-household waste electronics will come into effect, as well as take-back obligations for retailers and distributors.
The DTI said it had encountered “major practical difficulties” in meeting the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive’s original legal deadline of August 13, 2005. Other EU countries ““ including Germany ““ are also likely to bring in producer responsibility in 2006.
The Directive was supposed to see producer responsibility introduced in European states by August 13, 2005. The only thing that will happen in the UK on 13 August 2005 as far as WEEE is concerned is that the DTI proposes to implement the requirement to mark equipment to show it was put on the market after this August date.