The WWEM exhibition is a great exhibition for companies involved with any aspects of water, wastewater and environmental monitoring. For the 2018 event on the 21-22 November, B2B Compliance shared a stand with our parent trade association, GAMBICA, who support manufacturers operation in the instrumentation, control and automation industries in the UK.
We met with a lot of members and non-members alike and had many great conversations about how environmental monitoring products are obligated under the WEEE regulations.
I also had the pleasure of giving a presentation on WEEE Open Scope, to explain what this means for companies in the water industry who produce electrical testing equipment or pumps. Typically, a lot of products that were being exhibited at the conference may have been deemed out of scope, under the current scoping requirements.
Getting ready for Open Scope
However, Open Scope, which commences in the UK from 1st January 2019, will see the removal of a number of exclusions that have previously been used, in particular the Fixed Installation exclusion which is potentially being used for a lot of water/waste water monitoring products. (The Large Scale Fixed Installations will be remaining in 2019, for products that are large enough to meet the criteria set out in page 12 of the RoHS FAQ Directive).
Essentially, Open Scope is broadening the types of products that will fall into scope of the WEEE regulations from the beginning of January 2019. These products will carry a number of obligations for the companies who are first placing them onto the UK market by manufacturing, importing or re-branding. A company in this situation will need to register as an obligated Producer, and ensure the products are labelled with the crossed out wheelie bin symbol, amongst other obligations.
If you think this may apply to you, and you are considering any of your products lines as currently out of scope, please get in touch with us to understand how Open Scope may affect you and what steps you need to take.