A consultation on the three proposals for a waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) compliance fee methodology for 2015 has been launched by the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS).

As part of the revised WEEE Regulations introduced in January 2014, household WEEE collection targets are set for producer compliance schemes. Any scheme that doesn’t meet its collection target may choose to pay a compliance fee to meet the cost of financing obligations.

This is designed to discourage PCSs from collecting WEEE ‘significantly above their targets’ and then ‘seeking to sell that surplus at excessive prices to those PCSs that are short of their target amount’.

Each year, one mechanism and one administrator is chosen by BIS, based on factors including the method’s likelihood to encourage schemes to meet collection targets, economic analysis of the method, costs of administration and the timescale for the method’s implementation.

The consultation, which will run until 15 November, seeks opinions on which proposal, if any, should be approved to formulate the 2015 compliance fee and how well the proposals meet the evaluation criteria.

BIS expect responses from stakeholders in the WEEE supply chain including producers, producer compliance schemes (PCSs), WEEE treatment facilities, collection facilities, waste management companies and members of the reuse sector.

The compliance fee methodology approved by Business Secretary Sajid Javid will be announced by mid-February. PCSs will then have until 31 March to pay the appropriate compliance fee.

Details of the proposals

Proposals were submitted by the Joint Trade Associations (JTA), Valpak and ‘seven scheme’ group including Advantage Waste Brokers, Dataserv Group, DHL WEEE Compliance, Veolia WEEE Compliance, Wastepack/Electrolink, WeeeCare and WE3 Compliance.

The JTA, a group of nine trade associations from the sector, provided the methodology for the 2014 compliance fee and proposed a similar fee for 2015, with ‘some adaptations’.

The calculation, it says, ‘is based on the weighted average net cost of direct collection and treatment transactions incurred by PCSs that decide to use the compliance fee for a collection stream’.

It proposes that PCSs that use the mechanism for any stream for more than 10 per cent of its target would be required to contribute to the administrative costs of operating the 2015 compliance fee, providing extra incentive to achieve compliance by collection rather than the fee.

Compliance scheme operator Valpak’s proposal requires schemes to provide actual direct collection and treatment cost data by stream, and would need detailed cost data to support any submission towards the compliance fee.

A participation fee of £2,000 per scheme wishing to use the fee would contribute to the administration costs, while fees would be escalated by a factor related to the percentage scheme shortfall against the national target set by BIS so that a greater fee is payable for more significant shortfalls.

Finally in the ‘seven scheme’ proposal, the 2014 methodology, produced by the JTA is criticised, with the groups suggesting it was ‘open to manipulation by those PCSs intending to use the fee as an alternative means of compliance’.

It therefore proposes a base compliance fee, like Valpak, multiplied by an escalator that would increase depending on the shortfall against targets. It also suggests adding a 10 per cent base escalator that would not be linked to the shortfall, incentivising schemes to meet collection targets rather than relying on the fees.

Read and respond to all three WEEE compliance fee proposals on BIS’s website.