The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Fund (WEEE Fund) has announced that it will be providing more than £5 million of financial support to electronic waste recyclers during the Covid-19 pandemic in the form of its WEEE Support Grants and Loans Package.
The Fund, which is financed by the annual WEEE compliance fee – expected to be between £4-5 million this year – will provide support to those businesses that are finding a restricted flow of WEEE to their sites due to the mass closure of Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs) and disruption to kerbside WEEE collections and store takeback.
The package announced by the WEEE Fund will help to soften the impact of the coronavirus pandemic for the WEEE reuse and recycling sector.
The funding will provide £5 million in interest-free loans to electrical waste treatment facilities and £600,000 of grants to charity sector reuse organisations.
Applications for loans are open until the end of May 2020 and are available to all commercial Approved Authorised Treatment Facilities (AATFs) based on the compliance evidence they issued for treatment of waste they undertook in 2019.
Those applying for loans can request an application form and associated documents by emailing info@weeefund.uk.
The application process for the grant funding available to the charity sector will be confirmed in due course.
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How will the government and DMOs address the challenges of including glass in DRS while ensuring a level playing field across the UK?
There's no easy solution to include glass in the DRS while maintaining a level playing field. Potential approaches include a phased introduction of glass, potentially with higher deposits to reflect its logistical challenges. The government and DMOs could incentivise innovation in glass packaging design and subsidise dedicated return points for glass-handling. Exemptions for smaller businesses unable to handle glass might also be necessary. Any successful solution will likely blend several approaches. It must address the differing priorities of devolved administrations, balance environmental benefits with logistical and cost implications, and be supported by robust consumer education campaigns emphasizing the importance of glass recycling.