Agency to Approve WEEE Producer Compliance Schemes Soon

The Environment Agency looks set to formally approve the first batch of Producer Compliance Schemes under the WEEE Regulations in the next few days.

But the Agency today refuted claims by one compliance scheme that it had already been formally approved, and that producers could now register with it.

Producer compliance schemes are the organisations that will help manufacturers of electrical appliances deal with new producer responsibility regulations coming into force in July.

There is expected to be at least 13 producer compliance schemes set up to assist the thousands of producer companies in the UK deal with obligations to fund the collection and recycling of waste equipment.

Yet while one organisation said today it had been approved by the Agency and was now seeking producers to register as members, the Agency said that this was not the case.

The scheme known as B2BWEEE-scheme, run by consultancy Environ, said it was "pleased to announce the approval of the first UK Producer Compliance Scheme under the new WEEE Regulations".

But a spokeswoman for the Environment Agency said: "They haven't formally received approval from us, and they're not really in a position to accept registrations at this time."

The Agency spokeswoman could not comment on when the first producer compliance schemes would be formally approved, but said: "We are expecting it imminently, perhaps next week." She added that a list of approved compliance schemes would be published by the Agency, appearing on its website.

However, the B2BWEEE-scheme organisation insisted it had been contacted by the Agency by telephone confirming that it had "fully met all PCS requirements in the UK WEEE Regulations."

However, Environ's head of WEEE, RoHS and Eco-design, Dr Aidan Turnball, conceded that his company had not yet received certification of approval from the Agency.

He explained: "The Environment Agency confirmed yesterday that we had fully met all PCS requirements in the UK WEEE Regulations. We anticipated receiving our letter confirming approval yesterday afternoon. We did not realise that it would take four working days before the Environment Agency would actually issue the letter to us."

Once producer compliance schemes are formally approved by the Environment Agency, producers of electrical equipment in the UK will have until March 15, 2007, to register with a scheme.

Agency to Approve WEEE Producer Compliance Schemes Soon

e3 is supported by:

e³ is supported by: